News item | 06-06-2023 | 12:44
From next school year, Minister Dennis Wiersma (Primary and Secondary Education) will have more options to intervene in the event of serious abuses in schools. Today the Senate approved the bill ‘Expansion of administrative tools for education’, in which this is laid down.
This new law gives the minister more options to take action against a school in exceptional situations with an instruction. This is only possible if there are serious misconduct.
Minister Dennis Wiersma (Primary and Secondary Education): ‘All students deserve good, free and safe education. If a school board does not take care of this, we must be able to intervene faster and better. For example, if the quality of education is substandard at a school or if the finances are mishandled. Or if the content of the lesson goes against our democratic values or even calls for violence. Thanks to this new law, we can in such a case force the departure of administrators and supervisors more quickly or stop the funding of a school. In this way we ensure that the unsafe situation ends quickly and that the pupils in question get what they are entitled to, namely a safe and stable school environment.’
Until now, the minister was only allowed to give an instruction to weak schools if the quality of the entire system of primary or secondary education is under threat. This was not yet possible for serious violations of the citizenship assignment or in the event of security problems. That changes with this Act, in which the grounds for issuing an instruction have been expanded.
It will also be possible to give a school an emergency instruction. This may be necessary, for example, to suspend the authority to award diplomas if it is suspected that a school is doing something strange with the exams. Intervening at a school is only allowed if the Education Inspectorate has determined that there is reason to do so. Also, hearing both sides is always applied before measures follow.
In July 2022, the bill ‘Expansion of administrative tools for education’ was adopted by the House of Representatives. Today, the Senate also approved the bill with which this new law will enter into force on 1 August 2023.