Tweede Kamer calls for free laptops for all secondary school students

A majority in the Dutch Tweede Kamer wants the government to investigate whether laptops and tablets should be provided free to secondary school students by expanding the existing free schoolbooks law, RTL reported.

The push comes in a motion directing the cabinet to study expanding the 2009 Wet Gratis Schoolboeken—a law that already makes printed textbooks free for secondary students—into a broader “Wet Gratis Leermiddelen” that would also cover laptops, tablets, and other digital learning devices.

Lawmakers are demanding a clear government answer by 2027 on whether the change is feasible, including ways for schools to partly offset the extra costs themselves.

The motion follows last week’s debate in which multiple parties called for updating the law, which dates to an era before laptops became standard classroom tools. Today, nearly all secondary students use digital devices, yet parents often have to buy them themselves.

Initiators Marjolein Moorman of PRO, Ilana Rooderkerk of D66, and Arend Kisteman of VVD argue that including laptops in the law would reduce inequality among students and give schools better control over classroom technology. Many schools currently use a “bring your own device” policy, leading to wide differences in the quality of equipment students bring, NOS reported.

The Tweede Kamer also wants the cabinet, working with education organizations such as the VO-raad and SIVON, to map how schools already provide devices, collect successful examples, and consider rolling them out more broadly.

Financing remains the biggest hurdle. Coalition parties VVD and D66 insist no extra money is needed and say the change must be covered within existing budgets. PRO has not ruled out the possibility that additional funding may eventually be required.