Inspectorate gives Roc West Brabant board 'last chance'

The Education Inspectorate has no confidence in the way in which the board of Roc West Brabant manages the quality of education. The management is not 'in control', there is a lack of coherent measures and better priorities must be set.

That is the conclusion of the Inspectorate a report about administrative actions. The institution will have one last chance to structurally improve its grip on education. The Inspectorate wants to see improvement before the winter, otherwise the file with the stamp 'mismanagement' threatens to be sent to the minister. With more than seven thousand secondary students and just under sixteen thousand MBO students, Roc West Brabant is one of the largest institutions in the sector.

'To date, the board has not sufficiently succeeded in bringing about the necessary improvements on time, especially at the organization-wide level. It usually remains with plans, intentions and measures, which are partly taken reactively. As a result, and due to a lack of cohesion, there is insufficient guarantee that the improvements, which we do see in the lectures themselves, will lead to sufficient results and are permanently anchored, 'according to the Inspectorate report.

The research, conducted in March, will follow previous reports in which shortcomings were identified. The institution puts pressure to work to be with improvements. Interim Board Chairman Rob Neutelings in an interview with de Volkskrant today: 'The inspectorate came by in March, and the report is only now being published. A lot has happened in the meantime. We already shared the draft report internally with managers and directors in April. They had never experienced that. It worked. It was striking that they almost felt damaged in their professional honor. They rolled up their sleeves and got to work. Together we will ensure that the inspectorate can be satisfied in November.'

There have been several changes in the roc board. At the beginning of April this year, chairman of the board Arjan Kastelein announced that he would be leaving this summer. Kastelein has been on the board of directors since 2010. In 2012 he took over the gavel from Rob Franken, who has been at the helm for a long time.

Ilona Dulfer also joined the board in 2012. At the end of 2015, Dulfer, responsible for education and quality assurance among other things, stepped down. According to the annual report, she said goodbye with a severance package of 75 euros.