The municipality of Assen is making more than 433,000 euros available for the placement of emergency classrooms on the site of De Atlas, a location of special education institution RENN4. The current building on the Epe does not offer enough space for the increasing number of students.
The number of pupils in secondary special education is increasing. De Atlas in Assen is also affected by this and therefore has a housing problem. “We have a student freeze because we don’t have enough space for the registrations we receive,” says Hans Buist, housing advisor at RENN4. The Atlas provides education for young people aged 12 to 20 with behavioral and psychiatric problems, who therefore have difficulties learning and growing up.
The educational institution is therefore knocking on the door of the municipality of Assen, which is responsible for investing in the accommodation of primary and secondary education. “The idea was first to wait for the housing plan from the municipality. But it takes too long before this plan and its elaboration are ready. We have so many registrations that we can’t wait for that,” says Buist.
The municipality is therefore allocating the money to install five temporary classrooms on the site of the school at Epe 83. The units are expected to be installed in the spring of 2023 and will remain in place for a minimum of two and a maximum of five years. “We are happy that there is a solution, so that students do not sit at home and we can offer the education they need,” says Buist.
Some of the students will also be housed at the Salland location of the Vincent van Gogh comprehensive school in Assen at the end of this year.
Not only in Assen, but also in other areas, according to Buist, they are noticing the rising number of pupils in secondary special education. RENN4 has locations in Drenthe, Groningen and Friesland.
According to the General Education Union (AOB), for the first time more pupils are going to special education than before the introduction of appropriate education in 2014, while this legislative amendment was intended to ensure that as many pupils as possible go to a regular school. The Education Inspectorate is investigating the causes of this growth.