Parliament calls for flexible school hours to be retained
Schools must be able to deviate from the standard school holidays and the five-day school week. VVD, D66 and CDA think so. At the end of last week, they submitted a motion calling on the minister to maintain flexible school hours. The Lower House will vote on these motions today.
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Education minister Arie Slob reported early April that he does not implement the flexibilisation of school hours in the law. From 2011 a number of primary schools were able to experiment with their times and, for example, also give lessons during the holidays. When the minister took stock, he nevertheless thought that the experiment gave no reason to amend the law. He pointed to one investigation by the Education Inspectorate, which showed that the quality of education in a number of schools deteriorated from the experiment.
Radical change
'At one school, participation in the experiment led to a serious deterioration in the quality of education, after which the school was assessed as very poor,' Slob writes this week to MPs who asked critical questions about his decision. In addition, the Minister believes that this is a radical change that demands a lot from teachers and other teaching staff, partly because all pupils must have a personal learning line. From the 2020/2021 school year, all schools that took part in the test must simply comply with the laws again with the traditional school hours.
Bales
Schools that had no problems with their educational quality are disappointed with the decision. School director Hans van der Most of the Sterrenschool in Apeldoorn mentioned this earlier on this site 'disappointing'.
MPs
MPs are now also calling on the minister to introduce flexible school hours so that work and private life are better balanced. In their motion states that this must be possible under certain conditions, for example if the participation council agrees or if they can maintain the quality of education. The VVD, D66 and CDA also want the schools that are already participating in the trial and where nothing is wrong with it, can continue as usual. Which also thinks the PO council, the employers' umbrella in primary education. SGP Member of Parliament Roelof Bisschop also served a motion in which the government is asked to explore whether an exemption is still not possible.
Temporarily
In his letter of early June, Slob says that schools knew that this was an experiment in which there was also the possibility that the law would not be amended. The minister points out that he has looked at the experiment in his decision and has considered what it means for all primary schools. 'I must conclude here that there are risks to maintaining the quality of education. That's why I think changing laws and regulations is too risky.' Moreover, if the law were amended, Slob believes, a four-day school week would be unlimitedly possible for all schools. 'This while in February, following the Van den Hul motion in the context of the teacher shortage, your House spoke out against four-day school weeks', says Slob.
Update: There will be a vote in the House of Representatives on 18 June agreed with the motions.
