Inspectorate starts investigation into entire Svpo network
This month, the Education Inspectorate will start a broad investigation into the entire network of eight Schools for Personal Education (Svpo). The research focuses, among other things, on the educational content, employee participation and the spending of education money. The newest three schools in Hoorn, Deventer and Hengelo, which started this school year, are also included.
Image: Editors Education Magazine
Yesterday, the Svpo board was told that the inspectorate will examine all eight schools “in conjunction”, as an inspection spokesperson calls it. The study will start mid-month and will run until the summer.
The Utrecht Svpo school was completed in mid-October the judgment 'very weak', after an extensive quality study identified serious shortcomings in areas such as student guidance, quality assurance and social safety. Three older schools in Kapelle, Hardegarijp and Geldermalsen were previously 'administrative' examined. In doing so, the Inspectorate concluded, among other things, that employee participation is not functioning. A regular investigation into the Amsterdam Svpo school, which, like the Utrecht school, opened its doors in 2017, was already planned for this spring. The inspectorate received eight signals about this school. Trouw quoted some parents yesterday.
Copy
The new Svpo-wide study is the result of the fact that the schools are educational and organizational copies of each other. Nevertheless, they have been examined individually so far, because the schools are legally separate from each other. Founder Misha van Denderen has placed each school in a separate foundation with its own board, which consists of the same people everywhere, as it turned out last summer research from the Education magazine.
The inspectorate will also look explicitly at finances; It is still unclear how far that research will go. Within the Svpo network, money flows to and between 'service-providing' private foundations, also chaired by Van Denderen. For example, money from Svpo schools and parents in the form of 'donations' ends up in the coffers of the Foundation for Personal Education, a public benefit institution (ANBI). Teachers and parents have no say in how the 'donation fund' is spent.
