Special schools struggle to keep up with surging demand for places

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Special schools in Amsterdam are flooded with places because regular schools lack the resources to help children with additional needs.

Requests for transfers to special education increased 20% last year. Joost van Cam, Director of Samenwerkingverband, an organization that processes requests for places and funds in Amsterdam and Diemen, said: told Het Parool.

“Usually we see kids IV’s throughout the school year, but at the end of the school year it’s a bit of a struggle to find a place. ‘ he said.

Thijs Roovers, a member of the Executive Committee of the General Education Union, said the pressure on special schools was the result of years of poor planning.

The Good Education (Passend Onderwijs) Act, introduced ten years ago, was designed to ensure that, where possible, children with additional needs received adequate support in mainstream schools.

emergency solution

However, in a 2020 survey, 70% of teachers said they had trouble arranging adequate support in the classroom for children with learning or behavioral problems.

“We lack a long-term vision for what matters most in our society: the schools, the institutions on which the foundations are built,” Luvers said. “We are always coming up with urgent solutions.

“What we really need to do is think about how we can give our children a quality education in 10 or 15 years.”

“Inclusive education, where children get the support they need in their own schools, is currently not working,” said Van Cam. “Current means are forcing us to find other ways of looking at children’s performance.

“Given the current reality that children have developmental delays, we need to lower the bar and forget about the pressure in education.”

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https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/2022/09/special-schools-struggling-to-keep-up-with-soaring-demand-for-places/ Special schools struggle to keep up with surging demand for places

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