More than billion euros in reserves with school boards
Schools for primary and secondary education together have more than one billion euros in 'probably excessive' equity, the Education Inspectorate concludes. The reserves are much lower in MBO, HBO and WO.
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School boards in primary education have a total of about 850 million euros in - probably - too high reserves. In secondary education, this amounts to approximately 245 million euros. The reserves of both sectors together thus exceed one billion euros.
A financial buffer in itself is a good thing, the inspectorate writes. As is evident at the moment during the corona crisis. 'Financially healthy boards now have the scope to continue to provide students with good education as much as possible.'
If there is no proper substantiation of the reserve, the Inspectorate will ask how the Board is going to reduce it
But some boards are very thrifty. A small part of the schools keep 'amply' more money on hand than is necessary according to the inspection.
The latter is Minister Slob - and the AOb - a thorn in the side for years, because every penny that is hoarded does not benefit education. Slob reported earlier this year to the House of Representatives that hoarding administrations must account for themselves.
Alert value
The inspectorate has now developed a 'signaling value' in order to be able to chart the level of the reserves. That is the result of a calculation that can be applied in all educational sectors. The formula yields the amount that a board reasonably needs to finance assets and absorb risks.
In primary education, 60 percent of the boards appears to have equity capital that exceeds the norm of the detection value, in secondary education the percentage is 46 percent.
Partnerships
The partnerships in Appropriate Education take the lead: the reserves of 88 percent of these partnerships score above the detection value. 'As with the school boards, most partnerships involve a relatively small excess,' writes the inspectorate. But just as in the other sectors, a number of boards stand head and shoulders above the rest.
Universities
In higher professional education and at universities, the amounts and percentages are much lower. Boards in mbo have a total of around sixty million euros in potentially excessive equity, in higher professional education this is 10 million euros and at universities three million. 'In higher education there are hardly any indications of ineffective reserves,' says the inspectorate.
In higher education there are hardly any indications of inefficient reserves
Substantiation
In the coming period, the inspectors want to enter into a discussion about equity capital with school boards. 'A board can have good reasons to temporarily hold more equity capital', the inspectorate believes. 'But if there is no proper substantiation, the inspectorate will ask how the board is going to reduce equity - and we will also monitor whether that happens.'
