Self-tests available after higher education (hopefully) opens
The cabinet hopes that all students and staff will test themselves preventively before returning to campus. Minister Van Engelshoven explains to the Lower House how this will work logistically at the beginning of May.
Picture: National government
If the corona infections do not increase too much, all students are allowed from April 26 again one day per week to campus. The cabinet thinks that self-tests can help.
But how do you get those tests to all those hundreds of thousands of students and employees? There were still many questions about this in recent weeks, also in the House of Representatives. In a brief Minister Van Engelshoven already explains a few things.
Portal
SURF, the ICT organization for education, is going to lend a hand. There will be a digital portal where students and employees can order self-tests for free. There they can log in with the details of their existing institution account. The self-tests are then delivered to the address provided by them.
SURF, the ICT organization for education, is going to lend a hand
Self-tests are handed out via the institution to anyone who does not have a SURF account, for example because they are following non-government-funded education. Some universities of applied sciences consciously opt for this, the minister writes, and she is allowed to.
Large stock
The new portal is expected to be ready at the beginning of May and the distribution of the tests will start in the following days. That is after the institutions could partially open again, but that is not a problem according to the minister. 'Self-tests support this opening up and are not preconditions.'
Self-tests support this opening up and are not preconditions
Not all tests are delivered by the postman. The ministry and SURF conclude 'contracts with third parties that can organize the distribution of the tests.' The tests are transported to distribution points from the Ministry of Health – where a substantial stock is currently being built up. The first tests can be delivered to the institutions in the second half of April.
Trust
The entire operation will cost almost half a billion euros. That money comes from the 'large corona pot' of the Ministry of Finance. The self-tests are voluntary and certainly do not replace the basic rules, such as keeping a distance of one and a half meters, staying at home if you have complaints and washing your hands regularly.
The self-tests are voluntary and do not replace the basic rules
The minister concludes her letter optimistically. 'I am confident that this can be done safely and I appeal to institutions, students and employees to contribute to improving the epidemiological picture by means of self-tests.'
Pilot
The omens are not very favorable. This month, a pilot at Avans University of Applied Sciences showed that students did not feel like using self-tests against the corona virus. Only 30 percent of the students asked to participate in the trial.
So how should that be if institutions want to open completely again, without a distance of XNUMX meters? Avans chairman of the board Paul Rüpp previously called it “a realistic possibility” to ask students for a test or vaccination certificate. According to the Tilburg professor of education law Paul Zoontjens, this is even “more or less inevitable”.
