Parents demand more from schools, but help less

Parents are increasingly interfering with the education their child receives at school, but at the same time are less and less willing to help out on school trips and class parties and the like, DUO discovered in a study among 500 primary school teachers. Three quarters of the teachers said that parents are increasingly taking the position of a "consumer" who is entitled to certain services from the school, RTL Nieuws reports.

Half of the surveyed teachers said that parents interfere intensively to very intensively in education, for example by requesting interim discussions with the teacher or by asking critical questions. 56 percent of the teachers said they appreciate this involvement. 11 percent described this "interference" as negative. 

But when it comes to support needed on school trips, at class parties, or help in checking for head lice, parents are less and less willing to volunteer. Two thirds of the teachers said that it has become more difficult in the past five years to get parents involved in such helping-out activities. As too few parents volunteer to help, activities sometimes get canceled, over half of the teachers said. 4 percent said that this happens "often".

Parents are also less motivated to sit on schools' Parents Council or Participation Council. 28 percent of teachers indicated that it is difficult or very difficult at their school to interest parents in a place on the Parents Council, and 50 percent said the same about Participation Council.