VideoEducational organizations are relieved to respond to the cabinet decision to reopen primary and secondary schools. They do call for a longer-term corona vision for education country. At the colleges and universities, which remain locked for the time being, disappointment about today’s decision prevails.
Edwin van der Aa
Latest update:
16:21
The cabinet has decided that primary schools can open again after the Christmas holidays, on January 10. Secondary schools will therefore start again, as will after-school care. Higher education will remain closed until January 14 anyway. The cabinet will then take a new decision.
Chairman Freddy Weima of the PO council says: ,,I am pleased that the cabinet has decided that schools can open again after the Christmas holidays. Going to school with classmates is very important for the development of children.” According to Weima, it is time for a long-term strategy for education: “This is not a sustainable and workable situation for education. Last minute decisions are not good for students, parents and educational staff. The PO Council asks the new cabinet to think together with schools and school boards about how we do not have to close schools unexpectedly and how measures can be taken more in conjunction with each other.”
CNV Education also calls on people to think broadly about preventing future school closures. President Daniëlle Woestenberg: ,,After three ad hoc school closures in less than two years, it is high time for a more future-oriented policy. In order to keep education open in the long term, the discussion should no longer be about schools being open or closed, but about how schools can be opened sustainably. This discussion affects more than just education and must therefore be conducted more broadly.”
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Ventilation
The AOb union states that the new ministers of education must quickly develop a strategy for education. Boosting education staff with priority, ventilation in order. Standard scaling up of measures in case of increasing infections. It really needs to be organized more tightly,” it sounds.
Ingrid Doornbos, vice-chairman of the General Association of School Leaders, will also continue to argue, just as before the holidays, for sufficient (management) staff, good ventilation in all schools and the extension of the term of the National Education Programme; a bag of money for getting rid of corona arrears.
Doornbos: “At the same time, we are still bound by measures and additional measures are sometimes required locally.” She also notes that it is becoming increasingly difficult for many schools to determine which children are vulnerable and eligible for emergency care.
Disappointment
In higher education, there is great disappointment that the gates of the campus remain closed, except for exams and vulnerable students. ISO chair Lisanne de Roos: ,,The new year starts with a big damper for students in the Netherlands; keeping higher education closed is a cause for despondency. There are countless studies that show that the mental damage of a lockdown is enormous for students and the quality of fully online education also leaves much to be desired. Yet the outgoing cabinet seems to ignore all these signals and higher education remains closed, with all the consequences that entails.”
UNL chairman Pieter Duisenberg speaks of ‘a setback for our employees and students’. “Fortunately, exams can take place physically and the university libraries will remain open. In addition, we will try as best as possible to give shape to education online. We hope that there will soon be more possibilities on campus in the coming weeks. The situation will be reviewed again on January 14.”
Maurice Limmen, chairman of the Association of Universities of Applied Sciences, says he understands the decision. “But we are concerned about the far-reaching consequences of sitting at home for the younger generations. We will therefore continue to emphasize the importance of physical education for our students in politics.”
hard blow
The National Student Union (LSVb) even calls the continuing closure of education ‘very harmful to the mental health of students’. Chairman Ama Boahene: ,,The extension of this lockdown is a hard blow. This means another period of loneliness, depressive complaints and concentration problems, without a clear end point. The resilience of many young people is exhausted.”
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