Two weeks ago I was with 53 students from 5 VWO in South Limburg for the 18th time. beta camp. We do all those science/science/nerds there that we can do hard at school. Blueprints, firing missiles, we visit a mine and much more. In the meantime, we’re doing well. Nice conversations, great mutual insights, ‘courtships’ arise, we make music, we do karaoke, we don’t sleep much and enjoy the Limburg landscape. The students have been looking forward to this for months. We can go again!
So much for the good news. Because it may just be that this was the last beta camp. Since August 2021, students whose parents do not pay the voluntary parental contribution for ‘extra activities’ cannot be excluded from these activities. This was decided after the adoption of the private member’s bill of Peter Kwint (SP) and Lisa Westerveld (GroenLinks). Two MPs with a big heart for all students.
Essential
At first glance a great proposal. No one is left out, everyone is allowed to go on camp, on an excursion, to the DIY or plus class, etc. And the reasoning is sound. Imagine you are organizing a language trip to France as a school. ‘What better way to learn your languages than on the spot, with a host family?’ You limit the costs, ask for a voluntary contribution and 60 percent of the parents pay this contribution. Then the reasoning is that as a school you find it essential that you can supplement this from the normal funding. And if you don’t want that as a school, then apparently it’s not substantial enough. Then don’t do it.
And this is where the shoe pinches. How did this go with the beta camp before August 2021? We announced that we were going and gave the letter asking to transfer the amount. With a sentence like: ‘If this causes problems, please contact us and we will solve it.’ And that’s how it always happened. There are always parents with temporary or permanent financial problems. Looking for pots, paying in installments, sometimes being smart with budgets. It really always worked.
Pay yourself
With these solutions, we sometimes also used a Hague pass for people with a low income, the so-called Ooievaarspas. It could be used until August 2021 for ‘extra activities’ at school. But not anymore. Because it is voluntary, the money on this pass can no longer be used for this.
My school is a very normal beautiful school in The Hague. Mavo, havo, vwo with a great population of students from all corners of The Hague. The latest figures show that we can count on a willingness to pay between 60 and 80 percent for voluntary parental contributions. And that means that we have to reconsider all ‘extra activities’. Because if 70 percent pays, as a school you will have to contribute 30 percent. From the regular contribution.
Rome, Greece, China
Don’t all schools suffer from this in the same way? Well no. I hear from other schools, white schools from affluent neighborhoods, that the willingness to pay is almost 100 percent there. And that in the first place everything can go through without interruption. And that, moreover, it hardly costs anything from the regular funding. And there the trips are often a lot more exuberant. To Rome, of course. But also to Greece and even to China.
And at the same time, I hear from other schools with students from families who, especially in these uncertain times, have to make ends meet, that no journey can take place there anymore. It’s just not worth paying anymore.
Inequality
While the (certainly very sympathetic) bill was supposed to lead to a reduction in inequality, it may well be the other way around. Schools with students with rich parents do organize nice trips, while schools with students with poor parents do not. Or both go on an excursion, but then the ‘poor’ school has to make do with one less teacher that year.
So I think it would be a good idea to quickly evaluate what schools are going to do and whether the widely supported bill by Westerveld and Kwint does not have the opposite effect. Because if only rich children are allowed to make beautiful memories outside the school walls, we are doing something very wrong.
Arjan van der Meij is a physics teacher at the Christian College De Populier in The Hague