It doesn’t matter what media you read, any recent article about Dutch education tells you how really bad it is. One ex-teacher, Peter van Kranenburg, decided to do something about (read: cash in) and start, according to Dutch newspaper Trouw, the Netherlands’ very first private elementary school. Located in Bussum, North Holland, Florencius started today and has four students of 8 and 9 years old and seven staff members. It costs 12,500 euro a year, which is not cheap. Florencius is of course hoping for more students and plans to open more school in Arnhem and Haarlem.

If I am not mistaken, most Western countries have had private elementary schooling for ages. I wonder why it took so long for someone to be done here. Rules? Willpower? Embarassement? Starting any private venture is usually proof that when money is put into something, it makes things better.

I went from a high school with 2,500 screaming students to one with 125, not counting the 25% that get kicked out for bad behaviour in the first year. What happened?

(trouw.nl)