Slob: 'Procedures followed for funding closed iPad school'
Last year, the Education Inspectorate 'immediately' launched an investigation into the closed iPad school De Voor departure, Minister Arie Slob wrote to the Lower House. Documents from the inspection itself tell a different story.
Picture: Type tank
Answering parliamentary questions is sometimes an exercise in semantics, suggestion and imaging. In this case, eight questions had been asked by GroenLinks at the beginning of May in response to publications by Zembla and the Education magazine. The first three are about the national education and business model behind the iPad schools of Maurice de Hond's O4NT organization. The last five are specifically about the school board that De Hond founded in 2014 with two new iPad schools in Amsterdam.
One of them, De Voor departure, closed its doors at the end of October 2016 due to a low student number. The school board, chaired by De Hond, Education 4 New Time, continued to receive 23 euros a month in funding for the school. That came out when the Education magazine about it published in March 2017.
-> Timeline of Maurice de Hond's bankrupt school board
The inspectorate investigated the matter and concluded in a report early July last year that the funding was illegal. In total, DUO paid out nine months of education money for the closed school. At the end of last year, she therefore sent a claim of €XNUMX to the school board, which had since ceased to exist. Shortly afterwards, at the beginning of this year, the board was declared bankrupt.
Procedures
Although the closure of De Voor departure was announced in March 2017, DUO had the financing continued for months last spring, pending the inspection report. According to Slob, DUO could not do otherwise and the organization adhered to the applicable procedures.
DUO reported a claim to the trustee a while ago. Slob leaves open to the House the possibility that the government will see part of the XNUMX euros again. But the curator made himself a month and a half ago it is already clear that De Honds school board has left an empty estate and that there is nothing more to be gained for creditors.
Clarity
Also noteworthy is Slob's claim that last year the Education Inspectorate 'immediately' launched an investigation into the funding of the iPad school. Documents from the inspection show a different picture.
How is it exactly? In mid-February 2017, the inspectorate said during a conversation with the school board for the first time that one student was still registered at the closed school. Asked for an explanation, De Hond emailed the inspectorate two weeks later that this student was temporarily attending a school for special primary education to assess which type of school would suit him best.
This explanation prompted the Inspectorate to 'initiate an investigation that same month', writes Minister Slob firmly to the House. And further on in the letter: 'Because there was insufficient clarity, the Inspectorate then decided on March 21, 2017 not to wait any longer and to immediately start an investigation into the termination of the educational activities and into the funding of the school.'
Action Calendar
But that's not the whole story. The inspectorate wanted to wait for another board meeting with the institution, which was under stricter financial supervision. The inspectorate did not know at that time that the funding was going through, an inspection spokesperson emailed at the time. Until the Education Magazine posed questions about the financing of the closed school, partly on the basis of information provided by De Hond.
The Inspectorate intended to put this topic on the agenda for the next meeting with the Board. report about the school. 'Before this could take place, public attention was drawn to the way in which De Voorsprong ended its educational activities and the Inspectorate received questions about the legality of the funding of education in that period.
In response to these questions, the Inspectorate contacted DUO on 20 March 2017 to find out - as a matter of urgency - whether the funding for the closed school was indeed being paid.
From mails, released after an appeal to the Government Information (Public Access) Act (Wob), it appears that DUO did not know anything at that time either.
'What should be done here now?', the Inspectorate emailed DUO again:
In the meantime, as evidenced by the e-mail traffic, DUO employees quickly checked the situation. The next day, it was confirmed that the closed school was still receiving funding for XNUMX students, the number of students from the previous school year.
That same afternoon, March 21, 2017, the inspectorate informed school manager De Hond that they were conducting an official investigation.
