ZOETERMEER, 09/12/00 - Four large educational publishers are to supply content for the national education bulwark on the Internet, kennisnet. The four publishers - Malberg, Thieme Meulenhoff, Wolters-Noordhoff and Nijghen Versluys - are to sign an agreement Monday with Education Minister Hermands in Rotterdam.

The education minister wants all Dutch schools to be connected up to the kennisnet by next year at the latest. The cabinet allocated more extra funds for this on Prince's Day (Budget Day).

It has cost Hermans some effort to convince parliament of the importance of his ICT hobbyhorse. In June, the lower house adopted yet another motion in which public-private partnerships on the kennisnet was characterised as undesirable. The fear is that children could become excessively exposed to all kinds of advertising between their lesson materials.