Members of Parliament and education: Mariëlle Paul and Frank Wassenberg.

Members of Parliament and education: Mariëlle Paul and Frank Wassenberg.

Who are involved with education in The Hague? Who fights for better tailored education or worries about the teacher shortage? Each week two Members of Parliament introduce themselves to you. What are their plans for education in the coming years? Some faces are familiar, others are new in the House of Representatives. This week: Mariëlle Paul (VVD) and Frank Wassenberg (Partij voor de Dieren).

Mariëlle Paul – VVD

What is your background?

I grew up in Heeze, a village near Eindhoven. At eighteen, I moved to Leiden, where I studied international law. After my studies, I worked for thirty years in business, in various roles and sectors. As a teenager, I was already interested in politics, and in recent years I worked behind the scenes in the VVD. I find it very special and an honor to now be one of the 150 people working hard in the House of Representatives to make our country a little better every day. And that certainly includes our education. After all, this is the base with which we send our children into the world! And all those professionals in the classroom deserve that we give them the space to do their job. We as politicians must make sure of that. I do not have children myself, but thanks to a warm bond with family and good friends, I stay well informed about what is going on with parents and their children. And of course, I regularly talk with school leaders and teachers to bring their input into my work.

What are your main focus points for education in the coming years?

First, we want children to learn to read, write, and do math at school. That is the basis. Many subjects and tasks have been added on top of that, so I want to make sure teachers have time for this and are not overloaded with many other things. Also, we must quickly work to ensure there are enough people to stand in front of the class. For example, I want to make it easier to switch to teaching later in life. We need everyone in the coming years! And the quality of our education is always very important. It must be closely watched, because you can’t redo your school time. If the quality is not good, we must intervene. But on the other hand, if schools do very well, I think they should get more freedom, and we can, for example, invest extra in salaries for even better teachers.

What will you improve or do differently for parents and children?

In everything I do, I will keep in mind the child in the classroom and the teacher in front of the class. No one benefits from constantly new policies and rules that leave hardly any time for the student. So whether it is about the quality of the school, the lessons, or dealing with things that do not go well, I want to ask myself in every proposal and debate: do children at our schools really benefit from this?

Frank Wassenberg – Partij voor de Dieren

Would you briefly introduce yourself?

I am a biologist by training and have been a Member of Parliament for the Partij voor de Dieren since 2015. I come from a family of educators, my father taught biology at a secondary school in Maastricht, and my grandfather taught at a teacher training college (a predecessor of the pabo). I have two children who both study now.

What are your main focus points for education in the coming years?

It is time for politics to come forward with structural investments to solve the structural challenges in education. One-time fixes will not solve issues like the teacher shortage and overcrowded classes. The Partij voor de Dieren also supports making education more sustainable. For example, we want to increase attention to food, nature, and environmental education, culture, and media literacy.

What will you improve or do differently for parents and children?

For the Partij voor de Dieren, education is about development in a broad sense. Therefore, we are against the test culture. After all, not everything can be measured with decimals. We want to encourage secondary schools to work with broad first-year classes so children have a better chance to develop toward a path that really suits them.

Next time: Paul van Meenen (D66) and Nicki Pouw-Verweij (JA21)