WILLEMSTAD - Free education which was introduced by the Pueblo Soberano party is going to disappear. This is stated in an internal memo from the Ministry of Education, Sports, and Science which is in the hands of reporters from the Dutch newspaper Antilliaans Dagblad. According to the note, this will save the Ministry 18 million guilders.
And saving is necessary because the economic contraction means that the government does not receive enough money.
In total, almost 50 million guilders must be cut on the education budget. This means that there will be a reorganization at that ministry and the subsidy valve will be closed.
The largest cuts are on the budget managed by the Education and Science Implementation Organization (UOW) for a total reduction of over 39.2 million guilders. This mainly concerns cuts in subsidies to the special school boards and the various foundations. "The cuts in the ministry's budget are significant," it said in the memo dated May 18, 2020. To make up for the cuts, it is proposed to reorganize the ministry of Education.
“The ministry does not function optimally in the current composition,” said the memo. The current staffing of the ministry is high but not effective and functional. “We need to restructure as much as possible, taking into account the capacity of the current occupation.”
“A solution for the school boards that really get into financial trouble because of these cuts is to merge schools or school boards.” Foundations can also merge. The budget of the Public Schools Service (DOS) will in any case be cut by a total of 1.8 million guilders.