Tuesday, 2 April 2013 - 15:47
Major Financial Problems in Most Schools
Volkskrant.nl reports that the number of primary- and secondary schools under financial supervision has increased from 12 in September 2012 to 26 this month. The inspection on education, Onderwijsinspectie, had to publish these numbers according to the Dutch law on publicity of governance, Wet openbaarheid van bestuur (Wob).
The secondary school council, VO-raad, announced that between 70 and 90 percent of the boards are not able to deal with the increasing costs. Rising personnel costs is the main problem area. According to a representative of the council, the equity of all secondary schools in the Netherlands decreased from 110 million euro to 30 million, and the government has not compensated this loss.
According to RTL.nl the future looks a little better with the new coalition, but the budget cuts of the previous one will not disappear.
The VO-raad is planning to introduce more financial controls and to financially educate directors to prevent a decrease in the quality of education because of insufficient teachers. “Schools will turn into businesses.”