He failed to keep the schools open. Last Tuesday, outgoing minister Arie Slob (ChristenUnie), responsible for the education of two and a half million children, heard outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte (VVD) and outgoing minister Hugo de Jonge (CDA) announce that primary schools would have to close again – for the third time in two years. Four days later, the press conference followed in which it was announced that secondary schools, MBOs and higher education were also closing a week earlier due to the emergence of the new corona variant omikron. Slob (60) lay „complete total loss” on the couch, he says a week later in his room at the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. “It’s been really tough.”
Do you see it as a personal defeat that those schools are closed again?
“That’s how it feels. I was quite shaken that Tuesday that we had to make this decision together. But what new information came out in the days that followed, about the new omikron variant, ultimately confirmed that it was a good decision.”
You were very firm until a few days before the announcement. The previous Thursday you tweeted: ‘The commitment is and remains: schools will remain open’. Why did that fail?
“The government’s commitment was really to keep the schools open. After the last closure of primary schools, which lasted until February, we were able to maintain this for almost ten months. The OMT has said twice in recent weeks: consider it anyway. Especially because there was hardly any time between the start of the Christmas holidays and Christmas Day. So to speak, the children would go straight to grandparents in one go.
“I worked hard until the very last minute to keep the schools open. In recent weeks, everything has been tried to keep schools open in a responsible manner: face masks and rapid tests in primary schools, staggered breaks… But then Omikron came to the Netherlands at an enormous pace. On Sunday we were told this verbally in the Catshuis.”
Was your commitment then still that primary schools should remain open?
Until the decision-making moment on Tuesday, I conducted the internal debate from the perspective of the children. I wanted to avoid closure, yes. I have requested and conducted additional consultations about this. Also Tuesday morning with Rutte, De Jonge and Van Dissel [OMT-voorzitter]. You can reason 100 percent from a public health perspective, but I also have another responsibility: for the schools and the children. I therefore strongly emphasize the importance of education and the children.
“But new information kept coming in. The ink of the OMT advice had not yet dried when more was known about the advance of Omikron. On Tuesday we went through all the arguments together once again. That ultimately led to the decision to close the schools.”
Are you convinced of the necessity yourself?
“Certainly, I agreed with that decision.
Because the rest left you no choice? Or because you had your back against the wall because of Omikron?
“A new variant that is coming at us with so much force… We had no choice. I did it with a heavy heart, because we had ended up in a situation again that we hoped would never happen again. It is what it is. Let’s hope that schools can open again on January 10.”
A new ‘weighing moment’ for the schools will take place on 3 January. What does it take for them to open again?
“I cannot anticipate that. This requires advice from the OMT.”
School principals, teachers and parents wonder: don’t you know or don’t want to say it?
“No one knows exactly how a virus develops. If only we knew that.”
So you can’t guarantee that the schools will never close again?
“New. We can never give a 100 percent guarantee. We never know what the virus is doing. Who among us knew about Omikron a few weeks ago? That is why it will be very exciting again on January 3rd. I find that very annoying of course. Naturally!”
This sounds like schools could stay closed after January 10…
“I think that’s too early! Suppose I say now: the schools will remain closed. I can’t do that at all, can I? I don’t want that at all. I hope you believe that my commitment is to keep the schools open. That I had to make the decision to close them last week… That feels like a defeat.”
There are still many schools where ventilation is not in order.
“More than three quarters of the schools do have it in order. The other schools can apply for financial support. Education is the only sector that receives money for this.”
But those schools say: we don’t have the money. The government pays only thirty percent.
“At the moment there is still money. And school boards themselves also have a responsibility to arrange it.
An entire generation of children and young people is now having a broken school year for the third year in a row.
“That is very bad. We now know that it has led to learning delays and mental problems. There is a solid program to get rid of that, but that is now also being hindered. Very frustrating.”
Corona will remain for a while, what is the long-term strategy for education?
“The cabinet is now thinking about this further and the next cabinet will continue that.”
The new cabinet is expected to be in place by mid-January. Arie Slob will not be among them. The ChristenUnie announced this Wednesday that both Slob and Paul Blokhuis, State Secretary at the Ministry of Health, will not be returning to the Rutte IV cabinet of VVD, D66, CDA and ChristenUnie.
Is that your own choice?
“I said: if I really need it, I’ll consider it. So in the end I am no longer needed. I’m also happy about that: it means that other people are ready again. After four very intensive years, I am entering a different phase of life.”
Are you leaving politics?
“I don’t know what I’m going to do yet. First time for rest and reflection. It has been very, very hard.”
Also on a personal level: your wife was very ill last year.
“She was diagnosed with Kahler’s disease (a cancer of the white blood cells, ed.) last December and has undergone very intensive treatments, including a stem cell transplant. I am very grateful to the House of Representatives that they planned meetings in the morning during that period, so that I could be with her again in the evening.”
Didn’t you think: I’m going to take a break?
(Silence) „It could be this way. We have always been people of hope and confidence. We are very grateful that it ended well. She has since returned to work as a physiotherapist.
“That gratitude is also an aspect of myself that will help me a lot when I leave as minister. If I had to write on a blank sheet of paper what I had wanted to commit myself to, it would have said: education. That’s where my heart lies.”
How do you think you are valued by the education sector?
“The sector is very large. I thought it was great that we could work together on difficult subjects.”
There was regular criticism. You would be too invisible and have accomplished too little. Did that hit?
“I always take it seriously, but criticism is sometimes very different. Take the school closures: there was always a group that really insisted on closing. But the moment the schools closed, there was another group that said, why are the schools closing? That’s bad for kids!”
You could never really do it right?
“I do not know. There have also been times when everyone was satisfied, especially when extra money came in. What I have found difficult is that it has become a lot rougher. Threatening, swearing via social media. That is of an intensity that I have never experienced before. That never happened.”
When you took office, you received a legacy from your predecessor: the teacher shortage. That problem has only gotten worse in recent years.
“The teacher shortage has not been solved, that’s right. It weighs heavily on education. We’ve done a lot, invested a lot of money. Fortunately, there are also more and more lateral entrants and teacher training students, but we are rowing against the tide in this tight labor market.”
The new coalition agreement suggests that teachers should work more hours as a solution. Are you excited about that?
“I read a lot of plans of which I thought: nice. I also read that the salaries of primary school teachers are going up. I was able to do a lot about that myself, among other things we have made a start on closing the pay gap between primary and secondary education. It is great that the new cabinet will now fully equalize those salaries.”
But there is also a teacher shortage in secondary education.
“Yes, but there is also extra money due to the NPO resources (the corona billions to get rid of the learning disadvantages, ed.). Secondary education also benefits from that.”
Those billions of NPOs compounded the biggest problem: even more tutors were needed for tutoring.
“That’s a too quick conclusion.”
Schools say that. The teacher shortage has continued to grow since February.
“That’s right. There are indeed schools that say that their staff has left because they could find a place elsewhere. But that is also inherent in the labor market: there are simply a lot of vacancies.”
Do you leave a satisfied man?
“If I may use my own language dress: I am grateful for everything I have been able to do in recent years. But you cannot be 100 percent satisfied if there are still such large tasks for education.”
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