Now also the music school of Rotterdam is TER SILE. A group of teachers tries to make a restart themselves

For the Rotterdam councilors, the decision came as a thunderbolt in clear sky: the Artistic Forming Rotterdam (SKVR) will stop individual music lessons for children. And already in May this year. These music lessons are a small part of the range of the art center, the other lessons continue to exist. The decision came out at the end of last year via an article on Rotterdam’s online journalistic platform Fresh concreteand is the next in the series due to austerity cuts. Angry teachers had made contact. The SKVR wanted to keep it indoors, until it was known where the students could go.

Just before the Christmas recess, two turbulent council meetings on the decision followed. GroenLinks party chairman Judith Bokhove took the lead in the protest. “This is an essential part of the cultural ecosystem,” she said. How was it possible that the council had not been informed about this before? Then they could have looked at whether there were solutions, she asked. She received support from many other parties in the council, who thought it was all a shame that the music lessons would stop. The coalition parties also thought it was a shame, but were not willing to free up more money for it. Theo Coskun (SP) told about his daughter (now 37) who had learned to play Harp there. He also awarded the children of today.

Council members were particularly surprised at the decision of the SKVR because they had just promised 7 million subsidies with the Rotterdam Culture Plan for the next four years. That was 6 tons less than the amount that the SKVR had requested. But still. A lot of money. Why did the SKVR not told about their plans to stop music lessons? And did culture alderman Said Kasmi (D66) know it then? Then why didn’t he shared it with the council?

The SKVR announced that she suffers a loss of 1.1 million euros annually on individual music lessons. If no action is taken now, says interim director Heidy Knol, then other branches of the SKVR would also be in danger. “It’s very unfortunate, but it’s no different.”

Alderman Kasmi told during the debate in the council that he had heard of the intention of the SKVR in October 2024. He had not directly shared that information with the council because the SKVR makes such decisions independently. A decision, he said, which he fully supports the circumstances. “They have been emptying for years.”

“Really wrong now”

In one letter That Kasmi sent to the Council on request is about which group of music students are involved: 800 children and young people up to 25 years old. The majority of that group (90 percent) pays the lessons themselves. In practice often the parents. 10 percent (of the parents) is not possible. They receive support from, among others, the Youth Fund, who will see if they can continue that financial support if students take lessons somewhere else.

“At the end of April last year I got the feeling that it was really wrong now,” piano teacher Annemieke de Koning recalls. “There had been shortages for years, a reorganization has been hinted for years. But April last year was suddenly so negative. Then I called the union for the first time. “

Standing teachers, 32, have now all had to sign a settlement agreement and confidentiality statement that leads to their dismissal in May. If they were to draw within 3 weeks, they would have a drawing bonus of 1.5 monthly salary. In addition to the permanent teachers, fifty self-employed teachers also lose this part of their work. Teachers who NRC Speaks are mostly left under it. The word ‘inevitable’ often falls: individual lessons are expensive, they agree, and there is political and therefore socially no more support for subsidy. Many teachers work part -time for the SKVR. Some of them not only give individual lessons, but also give lessons at primary schools in the so-called Ikei project (every child an instrument) on behalf of the SKVR. That form of music education is not on the journey.

There is frustration among teachers about a lot of money that in recent years overhead would have gone. Tabladocent Heiko Dijker, who has been employed for twenty-five years, therefore finds the SKVR a log company: “With many managers and office staff. That is no longer in proportion to the number of teachers. ” The SKVR says that both teams have been halved. Clarinet teacher Jaap Schoneveld mentions expensive interim directors and a recently completely renewed branding. Piano teacher De Koning says that “a lot of money went to failing administration software. And buildings have been sold to get the balance just as well, but then space had to be hired and fully furnished for high prices. ” Director Heidy Knol confirms that, but says that it would also have been overdue maintenance on the three buildings sold. Also the frustrations about the administration software, a cost From just over half a million euros, she acknowledges as’ terrible but one -off. Even without the debacle we had done this procedure. “

In May, the SKVR suggested the teachers to set up their own music education cooperative. Around thirty teachers is now positive about this. Heiko Dijker is in a core group: “I think I speak on behalf of many teachers when I say that we had a good time at the SKVR, and that it ended in a hugely disappointing way. That has hurt a lot. But now that the bullet through the church is, I notice that this group puts all the energy in the cooperative. That Logge of the SKVR will no longer play a role. We determine what we do ourselves. ”

The positivity of the new group is evident from the fact that the website domain for the new name has already been reserved. “We’re going to be called Toon,” says Dijker proudly. But much is still unclear. For example, how they are going to knit financially. Nevertheless, Dijker trusts that he will be able to take all his students to the cooperative. “The contact with possible class locations is already going well.”

Some teachers still doubt whether they want to continue in the cooperative. “Nothing is known yet, there is nothing on paper yet,” says a teacher who gives music lessons to the SKVR for 32 years and does not want to name in the newspaper. “There is no room yet, the alderman has clearly said that they will not receive a subsidy. We are all still orphans now. I would not know how to succeed. ”

And there are teachers who certainly do not want to come along. Piano teacher Annemieke de Koning prefers to expand her own practice at home. This has consequences for the fourteen-year-old daughter of Sonia Angulo, who has been lessons from the king for six years. Continue the lessons at her home is not an option: too far away to cycle herself. Angulo hopes that the cooperative will get off the ground. “I have a good idea of ​​SKVR teachers. As far as I’m concerned, she stays with one of them. Otherwise we have to search further. ” Father Victor Schöyer also does not yet know where he will place his two daughters. “Maybe with the same teacher, if she continues independently, but that depends on the price.”

And then there is a problem that the teachers mention: not only the individual lessons, but also the group projects disappear with the bath water: ensembles of the SKVR such as the pop class, a jazz class, a talent class and a children’s orchestra in which SKVR students could play together. “While it’s all about playing together,” says a teacher who has been employed for forty years and does not want to be in the newspaper. “You can take private lessons somewhere, but what good is it if you can’t play together?” Heiko Dijker is convinced that the new cooperative will also facilitate ensembles. “There you notice that children learn to listen, play together, get inspired to practice, prepare pieces.”

Music in the neighborhoods

Alderman Kasmi also defends the decision of the SKVR in his letter that it is not disadvantageous for parents, because individual lessons at the SKVR would now be more expensive than lessons from private teachers in the free market. The king refutes that: “That is if you calculate per hour. But at the SKVR you share hours with other students. For example three or four in an hour. That is a lot cheaper. Private teachers often do not offer such lessons. Also the Neighborhood culture schools What the alderman says in his letter says he has a different form. “

She refers to music lessons during and after class time at primary schools: the IKEI project for all children during school, the neighborhood culture school for children who want extra lessons after school. The SKVR has said to focus on this for years to get more children in contact with instruments. In this way, 1,740 children are currently being reached, many of the disadvantaged neighborhoods. It is cheaper, among other things because the groups are a lot bigger. And it is primarily intended for children of primary school age. “That’s nice,” says councilor Judith Bokhove. “It is good that the SKVR introduces many young Rotterdammers to music. But if the spark has been skipped, it is important that further development can follow through a professional music lesson offer. ”

Those primary school lessons cannot be compared with individual music lessons on a self-chosen instrument, interim director Heidy Knol agrees. But if she has to choose, she would rather retain the group lessons for children who would otherwise not have had an instrument than the individual lessons that are too expensive for many parents. “My parents couldn’t afford music lessons either. I learned to play an instrument through the harmony. “

Music lessons that disappear mean a decay, says Knol too. “I think it’s a shame. Really a pity. ” But Knol also thinks that things are being pulled out of their context. The image originated, she says, that the SKVR only takes care of music lessons. We give many lessons, she says. From all kinds of dance class to creative subjects such as sculpting and painting. “We reach 100,000 Rotterdammers every year. We keep doing that. The individual music lessons are a small, relatively very expensive, department of the SKVR. ”

Advantages of music lessons

For Jaap Schoneveld, 43 years of SKVR clarinet teacher, the question of the whole case is difficult to answer. “You used to have no computer, not a mobile phone, then there was a limited leisure offer – of course, music lessons was more attractive at the time. The time of 70 children on the waiting list for saxophone lessons is over. ” According to Schoneveld, much earlier should have been looked at lessons at and after school. “At school for everyone, immediately after school for the children who like it and want more.”

The fact that the individual music lessons of the SKVR are now disappearing, he sees in the national trend of disappearing music schools due to cuts. The Hague, Utrecht, Tilburg and a lot of smaller cities and villages have seen music schools falling over in recent years. “We were actually the last and the largest of the Mohicans. There are still teachers who resist, but I know that this cannot be reversed. It is this either the entire SKVR will be bankrupt in two years. ” A shame, because Schoneveld once again mentions the well -known benefits of music lessons: “Better brain development, but also learning to ensure such an instrument, learning to listen to other players, learning to work together. It is about something that there is hardly any room for in the rest of education: feeling. Making music makes you an empathetic person. We forgot that as a society. Advanced music lessons also become more of an elitist affair in Rotterdam. ”

Councilor Judith Bokhove still thinks that if the council had previously been informed, a rescue attempt would have been possible. “It is great that the second city in the Netherlands cannot keep music school in the air.” She welcomes the group lessons but believes that it should be possible to continue streaming if a child has talent or would like to. Moreover, conservatories and the Codarts music and theater training, the Conservatory of Rotterdam, will have even more difficulty attracting Dutch talent, she thinks.

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