IV news:
From September 27-30, the long-planned study trip for school leaders and education experts to the Netherlands also took place. The SCOPE scholengroep of our president Piet Jansen, which runs a total of 23 Protestant and Catholic schools in Alphen aan den Rijn, was the host. Eight participants from four European countries (Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, and Germany) took part. They visited primary and secondary schools and the headquarters of VERUS, the umbrella organization advising the approximately 4000 Christian schools in the Netherlands with 1.3 million students. An excursion to the beautiful city of Leiden (the oldest university in the country!) with a visit to a science museum rounded off the program. The participants gained exciting insights into the Dutch school system and the various individual schools. In the Netherlands, two-thirds of all schools are Christian (1/3 Protestant, 1/3 Catholic) and are 100% financed by the state. We want to thank Bert van Leeuwen, Frits Hoekstra, Reindert Brouwer, Dennis Catsburg from SCOPE scholengroep and Berend Kamphuis from VERUS for making this interesting study trip possible!