THE HAGUE, Wednesday - On average, students at colleges and universities in the Netherlands only receive 13 hours of lectures from a teacher per week. At one third of all colleges and universities, they get even less than 10 hours of lectures.

Education Minister Ronald Plasterk disclosed the figures at the presentation of a report by the Education Inspectorate. He blamed the low number of lecture hours on New Teaching, an educational method whereby students are expected to acquire as much knowledge as possible without the intervention of a teacher.

"Here and there, the New Teaching method has been carried too far", as Plasterk stated. He does not wish to return to the traditional method of acquiring as much factual knowledge as possible, but does feel that the number of lecture hours with a teacher should increase. "There are a great number of complaints about the number of contact hours".

As opposed to colleges and universities, secondary schools have a legal minimum number of class hours. Many secondary schools however do not attain this norm.