72 million in corona subsidy back to state coffers
This spring, 72 million euros in subsidy for making up for corona arrears was left behind, 46 million of which in primary education and 24 million in secondary education. The money has been returned to the state treasury, according to the education budget recently.
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In the two application rounds in April and June this year, a total of 245 million euros was ready for primary, secondary and secondary vocational education. The grant was intended to set up catch-up and support programs outside of regular classes, such as summer or fall schools, weekend activities or an extended school day. An amount of 900 euros was available per student.
Topped up
The subsidy rounds this spring were a follow-up to the support package of 244 million euros that was paid in May 2020 announced. That money pot was fully utilized last year. In fact, because of the interest, the amount was eventually increased to 278 million. That enthusiasm was reason to top up the cash with 245 million at the beginning of this year. While the subsidy pot was being topped up, education minister Arie Slob came up with the National Education Program (NPO), the one-off support package of 8,5 billion euros that schools had to get to work immediately.
The question is to what extent the NPO played a role - in addition to factors mentioned more often, such as a shortage of teachers to provide the extra lessons. An OCW spokesperson was not yet able to provide an explanation, according to the VO Council it is "guessing" why the money was left behind.
Confusion
The PO council does have ideas about that. In addition to the limited application time, the spokesperson notes: "Schools were mainly concerned with the NPO, and the plans that were required for it. As a result, they had less need for the last tranche of the subsidy program for catch-up and support programs." In addition, there was 'confusion' about the various pots of money that had been made available. "We understood that many people got the idea that the subsidy scheme was, as it were, absorbed into the NPO," said the spokesperson.
A total of 8670 applications were awarded in 2020 and 2021 for a total of EUR 451 million, according to DUO. A large part of the schools used it. By far the most popular was the extended school day (especially in primary), followed at a great distance by summer and autumn schools.
