Education

Exam work, tests and grade lists: retention periods in education

17 December 2025 · 6 min read · DeSnipperaar

After every exam period a school is full of paper: completed exams, marked answer sheets, second-marker copies, examiners' notes, draft test papers and the administrative results sheets. Some items must be retained for years, others should be removed quickly to limit privacy risk. This article gives an overview for exam secretariats and admin staff in secondary and pre-vocational secondary education.

Exam work: six months after the result is fixed

Under the Dutch Final Examinations Decree (Eindexamenbesluit VO), completed exam work must be retained for at least six months after the result is fixed. This period exists to allow for revisions, complaints or procedures. After those six months the work may be destroyed, and indeed must be, unless objection procedures are ongoing.

In practice this means exam work from school year 2025-2026 (results late June 2026) may at the earliest be destroyed late December 2026. Many schools choose to do this over the Christmas break or at the start of the new year.

Grade lists and exam results

The formal grade list and the diploma are handed to the candidate. The school keeps its own records:

• Copies of issued grade lists and diplomas: as a rule five years after de-registration.
• Register of issued diplomas: a longer term, often 50 years or more for the national record.
• Marked test results during the programme: typically two to five years.

For the link with DUO via BRON, digital delivery takes place; the paper copy at school is secondary and falls under the regular retention periods.

What is "fixing the result"?

The formal fixing is done by the director in consultation with the exam secretary. Once that date is on paper, the six-month clock starts. For resits a separate period applies; resit exam work starts its clock at the fixing of that specific result.

Note the fixing date explicitly on the cover of the exam folder. That prevents arguments with your own diary six months later.

School exams and PTA

Alongside the central exam, secondary education uses school exams under the PTA (Programme of Testing and Conclusion). For this work, similar periods apply: the result is final once fixed by the director, then a minimum of six months retention. Tests from the regular curriculum do not fall under the Final Examinations Decree, but they do fall under the GDPR: a reasonable period of a few years, after which destruction.

Peak moments for destruction

Schools have two natural peak moments for paper destruction:

1. January-February: exam work from the previous year is ready for destruction.
2. July-August: expired student files from the closed school year can be cleared.

A mobile destruction run at these moments keeps records in order and meets the GDPR storage limitation principle. See also our article Audit-ready: how do you close your annual archive?

What must not go early?

• Exam work within the six-month period, even when there appears to be no objection.
• Documents subject to an ongoing complaint or objection procedure.
• Diploma records (registers) and grade lists within their term.

What may go quickly?

• Draft prints of exams after the result is fixed (unless the CvTE confidentiality rules say otherwise).
• Rough notes from markers once grades are fixed.
• Duplicate copies of results lists.
• Printed emails between teachers and coordinators about grades.

On-site destruction at the school

For schools, mobile shredding is practical: the truck arrives on the agreed day, boxes go straight from the archive into the hopper, staff can watch, and the certificate is ready on the spot. That gives you a piece of evidence for each destruction run that you archive in your records of processing.

Common features for schools:

• Work can be scheduled during the school holidays or outside teaching hours.
• No minimum volume, so a year's worth of boxes is fine.
• Certificate per job with weight, method and date.
• DIN 66399 P-5 for paper with BSN and health data.

Digital test results

More and more tests are digital. Backups on USB, external hard drives or old laptops belong in the annual cycle, including physical destruction at disposal. Simply wiping or formatting does not meet the GDPR standard for destruction; the data is recoverable. H-4 or E-4 is the floor for magnetic and electronic media.

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See our industry page Document destruction for schools for the sector-specific approach. With a fixed partner in the region you can easily keep the annual rhythm going.