in the netherlands the ministry establishes norms and policies and supervises while schools are highly autonomous regional governments deliver education with different degrees of autonomy and with the support of coordinating institutions germany also has the standing conference of the ministers of education and cultural affairs of the lander in the federal republic of germany kmk which defines agreements and reviews and shares information intergovernmental arrangements and cooperation exist while sovereignty is maintained at the federal level responsibilities are limited to broad education issues such as age of compulsory education federal systems may look for different options to steer the system as states or provinces have responsibility for delivering education and therefore require different types of policies or institutional arrangements for their education systems to progress