Users give school buildings a score of 6.5
Teachers, school children and parents have expressed their opinions on the quality of primary and secondary school buildings on www.checkjeschoolgebouw.nl in the past few weeks. They also uploaded photos to this website launched by the Court of Audit. The user survey has now closed. A score is given for each school covered by the survey that can be compared with the national average.
More than 8,000 people took part in the Court of Audit’s survey and gave their opinions on over 2,700 school buildings. Kees Vendrik, a member of the Court of Audit’s Board, said ‘It’s good that people with hands-on experience, the pupils and teachers who work in the schools every day, have given their opinions. We are pleased so many people seized this opportunity. I would like to thank everyone who took part.’
This is the first time the Court of Audit has published audit material without analysing it beforehand. ‘The survey was an experiment in two ways,’ explains Vendrik. ‘It was the first time we involved the people who were actually affected in this way. And we provided the information we collected from them straight back to society as open data. Everyone can see the results and third parties can work with the information.’
The Court of Audit will use the data in its own analyses in the months ahead. It will link, for example, municipal expenditure, population decline in certain regions and land registry information to the scores given on the quality of school buildings. Case studies at municipalities will consider various forms of cooperation between municipalities and school boards, supervision of school buildings and any obstacles to their renovation. The Court’s final audit report will be submitted to the House of Representatives next spring.
Note for the editor
More information is available from press officer Wietske de Jong +31 (0)70 342 42 19 / +31 (0)6 119 25 034.