'Public transport will not be a bottleneck on Tuesday'
Secondary education will start again next Tuesday - at least partially. Pupils are not allowed to use public transport, unless there is no other option. Schools and transporters seem to have solved this logistical puzzle. At least for the next two weeks.
GALLERY AOb
Secondary education can start again cautiously, the cabinet announced two weeks ago. But students should not just come to school to take tests or attend a mentoring hour, Prime Minister Mark Rutte added. No, classes must also be taken. And oh yes: students should avoid public transport - especially during rush hour.
Bikes
Before the corona crisis, about 12 percent of all students used public transport on a daily basis. How do they go to school now? A protocol provided the answer: everyone who lives within 8 kilometers of school goes by bicycle. A solution is being sought for students who live outside it. Perhaps they can also come by bicycle, perhaps they can be brought by their parents. And otherwise the school and the transporters will look for a solution.
This is thrown over the fence to the schools
At first the schools were not happy with this arrangement. “Transport is something we don't have a good answer to yet,” said Rector Dorine Pepping of Dominicus College in Nijmegen shortly after the cabinet's announcement against the Education Magazine. “Some of the pupils eventually also opted for a school that is easily accessible by public transport. And I think it is quite a burden for parents if they also have to transport children to secondary school. ”
Class times
To ensure that students at least avoid rush hours, as a school you can tinker with the lesson times, says Pepping. That has to fit in with the already extra complicated grid logistics. But then the influence kind of stops. “This is an issue for all of us. If we all think it is so important that students go back to school, students should perhaps also be given more priority in public transport. Politics should be allowed to comment on that a bit more. ”
Fence
Vice-principal Peter van Oosten of the Charlemagne College in Nijmegen formulated the opposite The Gelderlander slightly less subtle. This free school attracts students from far and wide, from Tiel and De Bosch to Venlo. How should they get to school from Tuesday? 'This is being thrown over the fence at us', Van Oosten observed.
Frans Ebskamp of the Free School North and East Netherlands Foundation from Zutphen was also not happy. "60 percent of our students come from outside Zutphen," he explained The Stentor. 'They come to Zutphen by train every day. We have to come up with a solution for that. '
Solved
With only a Whitsun weekend to go, most schools and carriers seem to have solved the logistics puzzle by now. “There are students who remain dependent on public transport,” says a spokesperson for the VO council. "But this involves small numbers with justified transport demand." It is expected that these students will be able to use public transport on Tuesday.
The proposal that you cram all your education between eleven and three is madness
This solves the transport puzzle - at least for the next two weeks. Because mid-June, MBO, HBO and WO will also be carefully closed again. And so students also travel by public transport. The cabinet and the educational institutions have agreed that students will in any case avoid rush hours.
Those agreements had not immediately reached everyone two weeks ago. 'None of my fellow chairmen has been involved in this,' said President of the Executive Board Geert ten Dam of the University of Amsterdam against science guide. "This has not been discussed, it has been imposed unilaterally."
Stupid
Ten Dam also found it strange that students will soon be able to use public transport only after the morning rush hour, from eleven o'clock, and also have to stay out of public transport during the evening rush hour - from three to eight o'clock. 'The proposal that you cram all your education between eleven and three is madness,' says Ten Dam. "That's really not an intelligent lockdown, that's a lockdown that is stupid."
Meanwhile, however, MBO, HBO and WO are also in consultation with the regional transporters to solve the puzzle. In MBO, schools are now considering also teaching on Saturdays. To this end, they would like MBO students to be able to travel on Saturdays with their public transport student card.
What is allowed next Tuesday and what is not allowed? Download the protocol for secondary education here
