Felix Rottenberg, chairman of the Branch Association Childcare, has lashed out hard at some of the primary schools. There are too many schools that have not consulted with childcare organizations about out-of-school care, he said in TV program On 1. He compared the relationship between the two with the relationship of “a cousin and a niece who don’t like each other so much”.
Rottenberg cited as an example the situation in Tilburg, where, according to him, 30 school boards could not be reached by childcare. “They went on holiday on April 27: ‘Bye, we’ll see afterwards’.” According to Rottenberg, childcare organizations have called parents this weekend, “About what their wishes are and their regular childcare days. That is 3000 conversations. In a country that excels in logistics and in consultation, that is a thing of the past.”
Rottenberg also mentioned Amsterdam, Delft and Almere as cities where schools would not have properly consulted with childcare about out-of-school care. “But we are going to solve it. The childcare excels in organizing.”
Emergency plan
According to Rottenberg, there was no guidance from the national government. “There should have been a central program that everyone adheres to. It should have said at the top: discuss things with each other.”
That some schools opt for half days is “a contingency plan,” said Rottenberg.
The show also included Christian Union leader Seegers. This led to the Rottenberg examples being exceptions. Rottenberg advised him to check this with his party member Slob, the Minister of Education. According to Rottenberg, 65 percent of the schools are doing well, but 35 percent are not. “That is really too much, it is really a problem (…) Schools go too far on their own.”
Most schools will open for the first time tomorrow. They were then closed for about two months, a period in which distance education was given.
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