Education Sec. wants to shorten long May vacation

According to State Secretary Sander Dekker of Education, the long May vacation for primary- and high school students is often stressful for parents who have one or more kids at home for three weeks. He therefore wants to schedule the May vacations in such a way that they only take up two weeks, ANP reports. The first week will be a mandatory vacation week. Then, if schools want to give their kids a second week of vacation, this must be done in the same week - say all schools who want to give a second week of May vacation must do it in the week after the mandatory week, or all must do it the week before the mandatory week. This means that the May vacation can only take up a maximum of two weeks, instead of three. Some schools decide to extend their May vacation from one week to two, if they have enough free days left over. Others opt to use those extra days for a longer Carnival holiday in the winter.