WILLEMSTAD - Teachers leaving Curaçao, the extreme heat, the electricity bills, the significant inequality of opportunities for children... With the new school year, the familiar issues resurface.
"Let's hope that this school year, the politics will take concrete action to put children - and consequently, education - in the number one spot," says Maghalie van der Bunt-George, director of the Association for Protestant Christian Education (VPCO) in Curaçao.
"We started in January to ensure that we have enough teachers at the beginning of the new school year by placing advertisements. We succeeded." Teachers have come from the Netherlands and from Curaçao itself.
"But we have seen many teachers leave. Especially to Bonaire and the Netherlands, where they can do the same work for a better salary and better working conditions." The departure of teachers is a problem that the government needs to address, according to her.
Also, a day before the start of the school year, Minister of Education Sithree van Heydoorn announced that schools can send students home earlier due to the heat. According to the VPCO director, it is an understandable action.
"But every time we send students home early, we lose valuable class time, and we could really use the lessons." The issue of heat in schools has been known for a while.
"There are schools with solar panels, but they are few. Most schools don't have the funds for that, and the buildings are not suitable. Many schools would need to improve their entire roofs before considering solar panels."
According to her, a better solution is a special electricity rate for educational institutions. "But for that, the government needs to talk to Aqualectra. They need to come up with such a rate."
Schools have been asking for it for a while. But it doesn't happen. "Just like there's no consistent increase in the education allowance. That would address many problems, including school maintenance."
She knows it; she's not making herself popular on the island. But according to Van der Bunt-George, the right choices often aren't made. "We raise the minimum wage, we spend money on many things. But in my opinion, we should really prioritize the children and that means allocating more resources to education."
Van der Bunt-George is not saying this for the first time. Together with other educational leaders, there have been discussions with successive Ministers of Education in recent years, and they've also talked with politicians from The Hague.
"We want every child in the Kingdom to have the same opportunities, and that requires improving our education. It's not happening in a systematic way." She hopes that this school year will indeed bring about new policies.
"But I don't want to sound entirely negative. We have teachers who teach eagerly and with a lot of enthusiasm." VPCO emphasized this during the conference for the start of the new school year, themed 'Enlighten Yourself'.
"We've put the teachers at the center because we simply have very good staff. We should be grateful for that."