Primary schools in The Hague will have around 15 million euros less from 2027 to spend on tackling educational disadvantage, after cuts to both the national and the city contribution.
School boards were told shortly before the summer holiday that the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science would be trimming the education budget.
Schools say the reduction will make it even harder to work against low literacy.
On Tuesday evening 29 September it also emerged that a national cut of 1.2 billion euros to education is threatened from 2031.
The revised CBS indicator
The reduction follows a revised indicator from the statistics agency CBS, which sets out how many pupils, and which pupils, are at greater risk of falling behind at school.
The indicator is adjusted every few years because society changes over time.
“The outcome of this new calculation does not do justice to the situation in The Hague and other large cities,” a spokesperson for education alderman Mariëtte van Leeuwen (Hart voor Den Haag) said.
“The number of Hague children at risk of falling behind has not dropped by fifteen percent.”
The money is used to give children who need it an extra push.
“Think of children whose command of the language is not good enough, who are less socially skilled, or where parental involvement needs strengthening,” the spokesperson said.
Schools decide for themselves how to spend it, for example on extra lessons or on putting more teachers in front of classes.
Effect on classrooms
Wiely Hendricks, chair of De Haagse Scholen, said the shortfall of 15 million euros means the city will lose around 150 teachers.
“Classes will get bigger and there is less specific attention for children from vulnerable neighbourhoods.
We can only deliver that if we get extra funding.”
Earlier in the week of 28 September, De Haagse Scholen sent an urgent letter on behalf of PPO, the platform for primary education, in the hope of waking up central government.
The quality of education, for which the state and the schools are jointly responsible, is going backwards, and the budget cut will make that worse.
Recent research into the reading skills of young people is one sign of that: 39 percent perform below the risk level for low literacy.
“Educational disadvantage means a false start in life for many children,” the spokesperson for Van Leeuwen said.
“That is why pre-school education is essential.”
Teacher shortage and family problems
The growing teacher shortage is another reason why attention for education cannot be allowed to slip.
“It is all hands on deck,” the spokesperson warned.
“On top of that, the complex family problems children face, particularly in the big cities, are increasing.
Think of poverty, bitter divorces and children from war zones.
Children do not leave those problems at home, they take them into school with them.”
Schools also call the timing awkward. The cut takes effect in 2027, halfway through the school year.
“It is impossible for schools to adapt to this new reality at such short notice.
Schools have already organised their staff and their programmes for the school year and cannot absorb financial changes of this size quickly.”
Van Leeuwen supports the letter and is working with colleagues from the other large cities on a further appeal. “This is not going well.
Come and talk to us, do not destroy education,” she wrote in a message on her social media.
