1/2 Job (middle) protests against the closure of the primary school in Vianen (photo: Jos Verkuijlen).
About 120 residents of Vianen will protest on Thursday against the plans to close the school in the village. “Bad idea, get rid of it!” shout children from Vianen who have gathered in front of the town hall of Cuijk. The city council will discuss the issue on Thursday night.
It has been known for some time that the school in Vianen (1250 inhabitants) and the one in Beers (1700 inhabitants) will merge in one building. In the past two years, we have looked at exactly where that building should be located. To the great anger of Vianen, it was recently decided that the new school will be located in Beers.
Job is standing in front of the town hall with a protest sign. “Not cool,” it says. “We are here because we believe that the school should be in the middle and not just in Beers,” says Job. He is in group 8. “I will be at secondary school next year. But other children will soon have to cycle much too far.”
“Our village is falling apart.”
“Disappointed, angry. No, even furious.” That says Rob van Etten of the Vianen village council. He speaks at the beginning of the committee meeting. “With the closure of the primary school, our village will be destroyed. And that while there are also options for a school between the two villages. We want this decision to be postponed and redone.”
In Vianen they are afraid that the quality of life in the village will deteriorate if the school disappears. Not all children will go to the new school in Beers, think the inhabitants of Vianen. The school in Cuijk is then closer. They are afraid that those children will join the football club in Cuijk, for example, and that would be bad for football club Vianen Vooruit.
“The province continues to say no.”
Alderman Joost Hendriks is clear during the meeting. “A school in the middle of the villages has no chance,” he says. The school would then be in the countryside. And that is not possible according to the rules of the province.
“We wanted to look at all the possibilities,” the alderman continues. “We have talked to the province four times to convince them whether there are possibilities in the outlying area. And that did not work out. The province keeps saying no.”
Another location that is closer to Vianen in Beers has also been dropped. “That place is four times as expensive as other places,” says the alderman.
It will be a few years before the school in Vianen closes and a new school is built in Beers.
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