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Development and opening of new international primary school not feasible in 2021

16 november 2020
For the past years PROOLeiden-Leiderdorp has worked, in collaboration with the municipality, on developing a second educational facility for international primary education in the Leiden area, based on the governmental policy on Dutch International Schools. However, this school will not be developed by our school association per school year 2021-2022. Pre-finance is required to establish a new school and support the introduction. The current effects of the COVID-19 pandemic combined with the necessary finances entails too many risks for the establishment.
The situation regarding international knowledge workers has changed because of the pandemic, also when it comes to education. We expect the demand for international education will continue, but the near future is uncertain and the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic and its additional restrictions are hard to predict.
PROOLeiden-Leiderdorp has invested heavily in educational innovations and housing these past years. The required pre-finances for the new school will make it impossible for us to keep investing in our public schools in Leiden and Leiderdorp. This means we will be limited in our investments for educational innovations and housing. To start this school from August 2021 onwards, it is absolutely necessary to receive a contribution from outside our school board, which unfortunately turned out to be impossible.

PROOLeiden-Leiderdorp is very disappointed due to the fact we are not able to develop this second Dutch International School for the Leiden area. There certainly is a lot of support for this type of international education within our organisation. With our heart for education, we would love to develop this new international school and we do see its usefulness. But it can't be done now, not in these uncertain times and not on our own.

Stichting Openbaar Primair en Speciaal Onderwijs Leiden