Education ministers want to intervene more quickly on substandard schools
The two education ministers Ingrid van Engelshoven (D66) and Arie Slob (ChristenUnie) want more opportunities to intervene more quickly in schools that are malfunctioning. Their current powers are not always sufficient, they write in a letter to the Lower House.
Picture: National government
In their letter the two ministers make proposals to extend their powers. Some laws need to be amended for this. Nowadays they cannot always intervene 'quickly and adequately' when schools underperform, as was the case at VMBO Maastricht last year during the final exam debacle.
That has to change, say the ministers. That is why they propose, for example, to stop funding primary and secondary schools in more cases. At the moment this is only possible if a school has too few pupils or if the school has been labeled 'very weak' for some time. The ministers now also want to be able to stop funding schools if they act structurally contrary to democratic values, if there is extremism or if social safety is at stake. 'Promoting citizenship is one of the core tasks of schools for a reason,' said Minister Slob. "It's non-negotiable."
Faster
Another proposal is that the ministers can intervene more quickly in urgent cases, for example in case of incidents involving final exams where time savings are important. At the moment the ministers can give schools a so-called instruction - the obligation to take measures quickly - but this involves many procedures. Those procedures must be shorter than with a normal designation. Catching up on school exams or temporarily suspending the authority of schools to issue diplomas are examples of temporary directions.
Minister Arie Slob: 'With freedom comes responsibility'
Some definitions in the law are now too strict, according to Van Engelshoven and Slob. They want to expand a number of them so that they can intervene more firmly. For example, the ministers want to be able to dismiss directors or supervisors if they function poorly.
Freedom and Responsibility
'In our education system there is a high degree of independence of schools,' explains Minister Slob. However, with that freedom comes responsibility. Most schools and boards handle this well. But if a school or administrator does not take that responsibility, we must be able to intervene. Because pupils and students must be able to trust that they will receive good education.'
The representative of the secondary schools, the secondary school council, understands the proposals, but wants to discuss how and when the ministers will use the extra powers and what that means for the internal supervision of schools, the council says. on its site. The employers' umbrella organization in primary education, the primary education council, endorses that action must be taken quickly if there are serious problems in schools.
