Minister: 'A CO2 meter in every class'
Education Minister Dennis Wiersma (VVD) wants a CO2 meter to be installed in every classroom in secondary schools and primary education. For this he adds 17,3 million euros to the lump sum funding for primary education. “CO2 meters are a good first step, but what happens if they turn red?”, says AObdriver Jelmer Evers.
Picture: type tank
With the financial commitment, school boards must now purchase CO2 meters as soon as possible if they had not already done so and use the meters, writes the education minister. Together with the employers' councils, he is looking at how he can check whether there will actually be a CO2 meter in every classroom.
Learning achievements
It is important for learning performance that the air in the classrooms is good and that, despite corona, education is given as much as possible in person. That is why the minister is now taking action. 'Educational staff should teach under good working conditions,' says Wiersma. 'Good air quality is a condition for this.' The AOb has been making a point for a long time of good ventilation.
AObdirector Jelmer Evers therefore calls the minister's commitment a "good step in the fight against infections at school". But he finds the results of the measurements particularly important. Evers: “The question is what happens with the measurements. At what concentration do the meters turn red and what do we do? Open a window? And if that doesn't help enough, what happens? leave the room?"
Responsibility
In his letter to the House of Representatives, Wiersma writes that the RuimteOK knowledge center will provide information about the use of the meter and what should be done if the values are too high. School boards must pay for a monitoring system for the meters themselves. Wiersma places this responsibility on the boards, because organizing a healthy working environment, including an indoor climate, is part of the duties of employers.
De AOb believes that staff should have a clear understanding of the measurements. Evers: “I get signals from practice that these are sometimes registered centrally with the management, but that the staff themselves cannot read the reading of the meters. That is, of course, ridiculous.”
Download the handy brochures of the AOb about ventilation. You will find the one for basic education through this link. You can read the guideline for senior secondary vocational education and higher education here.
