Voluntary parent contribution

“Do parents get the money back or have they lost this money?”

Question from Didi'ms world

I wonder if anyone has already thought about this?! Every year during the year I put aside the money for the voluntary parent contribution, that is, I save for it throughout the year so that I have the money together at the beginning of the school year. Today, it is a sum of EUR 275 which I pay annually to two schools for this.

At school 1, I pay for the solidarity package and they say:”Students who choose the Solidarity package gets a student pass that gives access to all the services associated with it.”At this school they describe it as follows:“... the use of an atlas, a dictionary, workwear, a dust coat, goggles, a reading book from school, headphones etc. not among the free educational resources. Also the use of the open learning centre, the study court or the media library are services that the school does not have to offer, and if the school offers them, the service does not have to be free, apart from the lessons that have been set up. Nor is the school obliged to offer the use of a school computer other than the lessons that have been set up. Also, the use of Wi-Fi, the provision of printing, extracurricular sports and school parties are such additional services. Use of these extras is covered by the solidarity package.”Finally, they add:“Who does not pay does not participate, gets no school pass and also can not use the extras.”This solidarity package costs 90 euros per year. I have always understood this voluntary contribution - especially in secondary school - regardless of whether it is possible to call it voluntary. When they were in elementary school I thought it was a slightly different story and I had more trouble with it although I always paid nicely. I found especially the differences in amounts in the different schools and activities for which it was used strange (and large).

At school 2, I pay the voluntary parent contribution for the following:“The parental contribution is used for the rental of a safety deposit box, copying costs and the working week.”At this school I pay 92,50 euros per child and since there are 2 children on it the amount is 185 euros.

So now I wonder what schools are going to do about the voluntary parent contribution. Due to the coronapandemic, a lot of services are not provided during part of the year. A school year officially lasts from August 1st to July 31st, but of course that is not entirely true in actual time since the holiday time is counted. I have checked and for the 2019 -2020 school year, students have been able to “use” things covered by the voluntary parental contribution for 29 weeks and not 17 weeks, this includes the holidays that fall in a school year. In the 29 weeks of school there were 4 weeks holidays so effectively they could use the facilities at school for 25 weeks. In those 17 weeks there were also 2 weeks vacation so the math is correct if you assume 39€ in a school year. For the observant reader who notices that you are at 40 weeks... that's right, but schools use 5 for students roster free days and that is 1 week that formally starts. These days are scattered throughout the school year. That's why I'm going to take 40 weeks for convenience. So 25 weeks of lessons for corona and 15 weeks after corona (where the facilities covered by the voluntary parent contribution are not used). You could also say that 1/3 of the school year children have not been able to use these facilities. It should also be borne in mind that a number of activities paid out of the voluntary parent contribution fall within the period of those 15 weeks, such as the working week, extracurricular sports and school parties. What I want to say is that a significant part of the amount that parents pay has not returned to the children by means of an activity because all these things have been canceled/are not going through.