Ministry does not want to oblige Frisian jurisdiction
Frisian schools are not obliged to appoint only teachers with a Frisian competence. Minister Arie Slob for Primary and Secondary Education writes this in a letter to the House.
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He responds This is in line with a report by the Body for the Frisian Language, DINGtiid, which recommends strengthening Frisian in education.
Minister Slob thinks it is unwise to impose additional requirements on schools when hiring teachers. Especially because of the teacher shortage. Moreover, it is up to the schools themselves to determine how they want to teach the Frisian language. The decision to only hire teachers with a Frisian qualification is therefore up to the schools.
Class hours
The new minister is also not keen on making two lessons of Frisian a week compulsory. Weekly hours are not prescribed for any subject, only the minimum number of clock hours is laid down by law. Slob writes in his letter that the government contributes to Frisian in education by means of funding to the province of Friesland, which is itself looking for an interpretation.
Last February DINGtiid . published the report: Multilingualism as a quality and goal: Advice on Frisian in education. The advisory body, which should promote the equal position of the Frisian and Dutch languages in Friesland, believes that schools in Friesland should focus much more on multilingualism. For example, they point to the Christian school community Liudger. 'Pupils there, for example, receive history lessons in Frisian, and they also use Dutch and English in class as subjects and language of instruction. As a result, it appears that they master all three languages better than students in monolingual education', says DINGtiid. The body also argued for a continuous Frisian curriculum from pre-school care to secondary education.
