Schools sound alarm over refugee pupil funding

Many Dutch primary schools are facing financial problems because they are not getting enough money to cope with refugee children who speak no Dutch, according to a poll of school heads.

Schools which accept one to three refugee pupils get no extra financial resources to help the children adjust and many of those with more say they have had no funding as yet. In theory, it costs up to €9,000 per year to help settle each refugee child.

‘It is completely unclear why schools with fewer than four refugee pupils get no money,’ Petra van Haren, head of the AVS, said in a statement. ‘The ministry will not give us a clear answer.’

Disadvantage

‘This is serious because children are being disadvantaged and that can have an impact on their future school career and later life,’ she said. ‘In the Netherlands, we always say we want to give children the best opportunities in terms of education and the jobs market, but we are not living up to that in this case.’

Of the 218 schools with refugee children which took part in the poll, 91 have fewer than four refugee pupils and so get no additional financial help at all. Half of those with more refugee pupils have not yet had any extra funding.

In addition, the AVS says extra funding should be available for more than one year.