Each classroom is equipped with a CO2 meter to ensure that students and teachers breathe enough healthy air. There will also be a helpline for schools, an emergency service of experts who help to put the ventilation in order.
Minister Dennis Wiersma (Primary and Secondary Education), the PO Council, VO Council and the Association of Dutch Municipalities (VNG) have agreed on this. Minister Wiersma: ,,Teachers and students have the right to healthy air in the classroom. Especially in this corona time, we have to do everything we can to keep schools open responsibly. School boards and municipalities are working hard to improve ventilation. But we still see too many schools where it is not yet good and that simply has to improve quickly.”
The ministry is making 17 million euros available for the purchase of CO2 meters. Boards that have previously purchased the meters are also reimbursed in this way. Schools, teachers and municipalities that need help and advice can call on telephone number 0800-0224402 and the website ventilationhulp.nl. Here, schools can be helped directly with urgent questions and receive practical tips.
The parties involved emphasize that these agreements will not solve all ventilation problems at once. “But the situation will improve in the short term. Research shows that more needs to be done to improve outdated school buildings and make them more sustainable.” The Ministry of Education, municipal umbrella organization VNG, the PO Council and the VO Council will discuss this further.
Apply for a subsidy
A municipality can already apply for a subsidy for a local school to improve ventilation. This is possible until April 30. This mainly concerns the financing of construction and installation costs. About 30 percent of the application is subsidized by the government and the rest has to be paid from financial resources that the municipalities and school boards already receive to provide housing that meets the standards.
The cabinet has set aside 360 million euros for improving the indoor climate in schools. Nearly 200 million of these are now available. The remaining 160 million is reserved for this year and next.
Money is not a luxury: according to the latest figures, from last August, it appears that more than a quarter (27.6 percent) of school buildings do not meet the existing standards for healthy air in the classroom. In primary education, the ventilation problem is greatest for buildings from the years 1946-1978. In secondary education this applies to buildings from the years 1978-1992.
In 2020, then education minister Arie Slob set up a National Coordination Team for Ventilation in Schools (LCVS) for the first time. That team already concluded that – partly due to the corona crisis – schools needed practical measures for the short term to organize and keep the ventilation in order. At the time, there was also a recommendation to set up a ‘cohesive approach’, partly because of the climate agreement.
Comments
“We have also agreed to look at the larger housing issue in the longer term,” confirms Henk Hagoort, chairman of the Secondary Education Council. “On average, a school building is only replaced after 69 years. So money is needed to make up for the backlog, which is expected to be many hundreds of millions a year.”
That money is not there yet. Hagoort: ,,But we are pleased that the minister has put the theme on the agenda, it is a work in progress. Now the immediate problems are solved first. But good buildings are not only sufficient in terms of CO2, but also in terms of sound, light and particulate matter. In addition, higher demands are being made on housing than in the past due to educational innovation and accessibility, but also in connection with sustainability.”
Chairman Freddy Weima of the PO Council (primary education) notes that the implementation of the wish to improve educational housing was in danger of coming to a standstill. “How did that come about? It was a matter of shared responsibility and precise agreements were lacking. They are there now, that is the first step. For years there was not enough money to replace or improve dilapidated buildings. Not from the central government, but also municipalities and school boards often had no resources for, for example, a new ventilation system. Financial customization is now possible if parties cannot reach an agreement locally. We hope for a breakthrough in many places.”
According to Eelco Eerenberg (VNG), the past corona period has taught us the usefulness and necessity of good ventilation. “At the moment there are still too many buildings and locations where ventilation is not yet in order. That is why we are also happy with this tailor-made approach in which urgent situations are dealt with quickly.”
Eighteen months ago it turned out that the ventilation of hundreds of school buildings was not in order:
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