Summary: Unhappy members of staff at the EPO (the vast majority of staff) claim that their children too are affected by their EPO career because the schools aren't functioning properly

THE Administrative Council of the EPO is meeting this week and we'll soon know if it bothered listening to the urgent call for a Conference of Ministers of the Contracting States. Lots of crime and corruption have basically become the "new normal" since the last such conference. Benoît Battistelli and António Campinos have been laughing at the face of the law and even bribed those who are meant to regulate/oversee them.

But meanwhile (also this week) there was ongoing concern about the European School The Hague (ESH), where EPO staff sends a lot of children.

The text below is being circulated this week, summarising the key points staff wished to discuss with management:

PETITION European School The Hague (ESH)

Provide quality education to EPO children

Dear colleagues,

We are writing to you today to ask you to support our colleagues with children attending the European School of The Hague (ESH), by signing the petition below. We are worried to have learned that ESH is unable to provide adequate teaching to their students, many of them being EPO children.

We, the staff of the EPO, parents of children at the European School of The Hague (ESH), note that the ESH is not providing quality education at the level required for an European School, due to - inter alia:

- Shortage of teachers. Teachers are overbooked, absent or were simply not recruited.

- Inadequate timetables. Some students have blocks of up to 4 same subject consecutive classes

- B-exam: No/ not sufficient preparation for specific mandatory exams.

- ESH is incapable to manage children with special needs.

- Inadequate understanding of COVID Curfew learning impact and lack of learning catch-up programs.

- A high rate of staff turnover is reported.

- Lack of administrative and support staff (reception, security, etc.).

- Billing problems, such as the definition of miscellaneous costs.

As the EPO management, supported by the education and childcare reform, promotes the ESH as the educational institution for the children of EPO staff,

we hereby ask immediate action from the EPO management to:

i) Request the EPO to invest into the educational infrastructure of the ESH, and

ii) Extend the transitional measures to all EPO children, to attend a school of their choice, until the ESH is at the standard of a category I European School.

We believe that everyone deserves a quality education. We strongly believe that education is a right, not a privilege.

Why is nobody in relevant communities covering this? As I pointed out a couple of days ago, some organisations such as the EFF intentionally overlook the situation at the EPO. They just can't be bothered unless some billionaire and lobbyists pay them for 'activism' (as Mark Cuban did). The corporate media is even more culpable because it has an actual responsibility to inform the public, especially national broadcasters. ⬆