Get a diploma? Pay first.

Get a diploma? Pay first.

The voluntary parent contribution often causes difficult and unacceptable situations for parents. We regularly receive signals about this by phone, email, and social media. That is why we have been drawing attention to the subject for some time. Recently, we raised the alarm about such a situation, successfully.

Parent contribution for diploma ceremony

A parent called us to say that her child would be excluded from the diploma ceremony because the parents could not pay the contribution of €20. We found this unacceptable. Lobke Vlaming, director of Ouders & Onderwijs, sent a message about this on Twitter:

‘It can always get worse. We were called by a parent who could not pay the 20 euro contribution for the diploma ceremony. The school decided the child could not come. #childpoverty #notaprilfools’

EditieNL broadcast

The message was picked up and shortly after Lobke spoke in EditieNL about the exclusion of children at school when parents cannot pay the parent contribution. For this parent, the problem was solved, and the child was allowed to join the ceremony with all classmates. Unfortunately, we at Ouders & Onderwijs still often get signals that such situations happen. We are therefore happy with all the attention for the fact that the voluntary parent contribution is really voluntary!