MBO and higher education must be able to remain open at all costs, even if the infection rates rise. That says Ingrid van Engelshoven, outgoing Minister of Education, in news hour.
“We are, however, prepared for a scenario in which we will also work with admission tickets in education. This was already taken into account when the Act on Testing for Access was drawn up. Of course you do not want that either, because that is a severe measure. But we have to prevent education at all costs from having to close.”
The outgoing cabinet announced tonight that MBO and higher education will open again from 30 August. The 1.5 meter rule will then expire, but other conditions will apply. A maximum of 75 students may be present in a room, students must test themselves twice a week and face masks are worn in the corridors. “It’s unbelievably nice that we were able to make this decision,” said Van Engelshoven. “This is very important for the more than a million students who have been yearning for this contact.”
Open again after a year and a half
The Outbreak Management Team (OMT) advised the cabinet not to reopen education until later. “But as a cabinet, we thought the social importance was too great. That is why we choose to open at the beginning of the academic year with extra measures,” says Van Engelshoven.
Over the past eighteen months, students have largely followed education from home. Even when nightclubs were allowed to reopen in June, students were only allowed at school one day a week. The minister acknowledges that students have been sitting at home too long, but she says there was no other way.
The maximum of 75 students per room also means that part of the education will still take place digitally. Van Engelshoven: “We must be able to keep an eye on the virus in the event of an outbreak. Source and contact research still makes sense with 75 people and in this way the working groups can at least continue. If I have to decide between opening later, or now on this way, then I think this is the better solution.”
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Students relieved
earlier student union LSVb announced to be “relieved and happy” that the 1,5 meter rule is disappearing. “The fact that students are finally liberated from their student room after a year and a half of sitting at home, the flag went out for a while,” said chairman Ama Boahene in News and Co.
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