ANP students at a primary school in Pijnacker-Nootdorp
NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 12:14
The call for extra money for education is great, but the savings pots of school boards continue to grow. Primary and secondary schools have a total of 8 billion euros in the bank, it is calculated Follow the Money.
According to Follow the Money, school boards in primary education have an average equity of 4.2 million euros, which is a significant increase compared to 2021. Secondary schools also have an increasing amount in the bank, according to the news medium.
These types of large piggy banks have been a cause for concern for the Education Inspectorate for years. “Money intended for education must be spent on it. Especially in times when education is under pressure,” can be read in the annual report on the financial state of education from 2019.
According to Follow the Money, schools save so much money because they receive a fixed amount per student to help organize education. The idea behind this is that schools can decide for themselves how this money should be spent.
But that responsibility has a disadvantage, says professor of educational science Klaas van Veen to Follow the Money. “Directors are afraid of getting into financial trouble and want to avoid future risks. The result is that some of them budget too cautiously and have too much left over.”
Uncertainty due to extra funds
In addition, the government regularly spends extra money to tackle problems in education. A recent example is the 6 billion euros to clear backlogs due to corona. These types of extra funds contribute to the growing amounts in the bank, the Education Council and the Education Inspectorate concluded this year. The additional amounts of money are often not known until late, which leads to large reserves that school boards find it difficult to phase out. Moreover, there are simply few teachers available to spend the money on.
The extra pots still have an effect, Van Veen tells Follow the Money. “You cannot enter into structural obligations with temporary money. So you cannot offer teachers permanent contracts. Many novice teachers leave education because they cannot get a permanent job, while we are in a personnel crisis.”
According to him, the government must therefore ensure that the financing of education also provides long-term policy. “Stop with all those separate subsidy pots.”
2023-10-21 10:14:06
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