The municipality of Essen is providing more than €433,000 to place emergency classrooms at De Atlas, the site of the private education institution RENN4. The current building in Epe does not provide enough space for the growing number of students.

The number of pupils in special secondary education is increasing. De Atlas in Assen is also affected by this and therefore has a housing problem. “We have a student freeze because we don’t have enough space for the enrollments we receive,” says Hans Boest, housing advisor at RENN4. Atlas provides education to young people between the ages of 12 and 20 who have behavioral and psychological problems and who therefore have learning and developmental difficulties.

Therefore, the educational institution knocks on the door of the municipality of Essen, which is responsible for investing in providing housing for primary and secondary education. “The idea was to wait for the housing plan from the municipality first,” Boist says. “But it takes a long time before this plan and the details are ready. We have so many registrations that we can’t wait for that.”

The municipality is therefore allocating funds for the installation of five temporary classrooms at the school site on Epe 83. The units are expected to be installed in the spring of 2023 and will remain in place for a minimum of two years and a maximum of five years. “We’re glad there is a solution, so that students aren’t sitting at home and we can offer the education they need,” Boist says.

Some students will also be housed at the Salland site of the Vincent van Gogh comprehensive school in Assen at the end of this year.

Not only in Essen, but also in other regions, according to Boist, they notice a rise in the number of pupils in special secondary education. RENN4 has sites in Drenthe, Groningen and Friesland.

According to the General Education Confederation (AOB), for the first time, more pupils go to private education than before the introduction of appropriate education in 2014, while this legislative amendment was intended to ensure that as many pupils as possible go to private school. Normal . The Education Inspectorate is investigating the reasons for this growth.