At least seven students from the Beemster have been forced to stay at home for almost two weeks because there is no transport for them to school. It concerns six children who have to go to a transition class in Purmerend and a boy of 7 who goes to special education in Zwaag. “Probably there are many more”, says Ineke Beuse of Vluchtelingenwerk, “but this is what I find in the families I supervise.”
In the seventeen years that she has been doing this work, Ineke has never experienced a problem with student transport. “I don’t understand it either, because most children were already in transport to school before the summer.”
According to the municipality of Purmerend, which is responsible for transport, it is because a number of applications were only submitted in the summer – so shortly before the start of the school year. And those applications could not be processed immediately at the start of the school year. That takes several weeks.
But how is it possible that one is achieved and the other is not, while the situations are the same, Ineke wonders. She has not received an answer and a spokesperson for the municipality also says she does not know. And Ineke and the parents also do not know when the transport will start. “It’s very confusing and unclear.”
Home alone
Alem, the mother of 7-year-old Nahom, says that her son misses school very much. “Every morning when he gets up he asks me: ‘Mama why isn’t the taxi coming. Why am I staying home alone’.” Nahom sits like a dead bird on the couch and looks a bit glassy at the TV. He misses school, misses his two best friends and wants to get back into his favorite gymnastics subject.
Now Nahom’s parents have received a letter that their son is also entitled to transport this school year. “It just doesn’t say when,” says Tineke, who hopes that clarity will come soon.
The problems are unknown at the carrier Munckhof. According to a company spokesperson, it is certainly not the case that there are not enough drivers to carry out the journeys. “We do have that problem in Amsterdam, but not in Purmerend.”