Just as spring has decided to put in an appearance and things are finally warming up a little, the government puts education in the freezer, writes Hanneke Sanou.

Education minister Ronald Plasterk, it seems, is throwing his ever-present hat into the ring and bowing to crisis management fever. Hard-fought pay deals and promises of smaller, more manageable classes with kids in them who are actually learning something go by the board as finance minister Wouter Bos snaps the kitty shut.
Poor teachers. They have been had good and proper. Think back to all those consultation rounds for the 2007 Rinnooy Kan report on solving the teacher shortage which were greeted so enthusiastically by the minister…
Things are going to get better, teachers said, cheeks red with excitement. And for a while they did. Although many of Rinnooy Kan’s recommendations for educational reform were largely ignored, teachers did get more pay.
And since plain, ordinary dosh is one of the things that might attract more people into the profession, it really doesn’t make sense to freeze pay and make teachers’ lives even more difficult by swamping them with more students.
There is more money for subsidising green energy schemes, for disposing of old cars and to keep women out of work (the extra tax break on non-working partners, nicknamed the kitchen sink subsidy). And mortgage tax relief remains the most generous in Europe.
But education again, would appear to be an easy target. A little after-crisis management would be a good idea if we want to have any teachers left at all.

Hanneke Sanou is a freelance journalist