Children “forgotten” in Dutch covid response, inquiry hears

Children were “forgotten” in the Netherlands’ response to the coronavirus pandemic and their rights pushed aside, the parliamentary inquiry into the government’s covid response was told on Wednesday, as two witnesses said decisions had been dominated by medical advisers.

Margrite Kalverboer, the Children’s Ombudsman (Kinderombudsman), an independent watchdog for the rights of under-18s, said the cabinet had “forgotten children” when weighing its decisions. The country had “certainly violated children’s rights”, she told the commission.

The government’s expert advisory panel, the Outbreak Management Team (OMT), included no child psychologist, only medical specialists, Kalverboer said, and her written warnings to the prime minister and the education minister went unanswered.

An ombudsman had no power to force action, she added, and she questioned whether she should have pushed harder.

School closures hit some children hard, Kalverboer said. Secondary schools should have reopened sooner, and vocational students suffered “deep loneliness” trying to follow practical courses from a screen. She also pointed to children left at home with abusive family members during the lockdowns.

Don’t close schools again
Paul Rosenmöller, who chaired the secondary schools council (VO-raad) during the pandemic, said he had been “unpleasantly surprised” by the decision to close schools in March 2020, after expert advice flipped within a day.

The cabinet had acted “too lightly”, he said, and the closures had widened inequality of opportunity – some pupils studied “three to a kitchen table” while others had no laptop at all.

Education had not been a priority and the OMT’s advice was too “narrow”, Rosenmöller said. The decisions had been dominated by the health ministry, he added.

His message to the panel was blunt: do not close schools again, and make it a conclusion of the final report. Slob is due to testify on Friday, when the inquiry’s week on education closes.