Aruba education faces criticism over funding and policy

As the new school year begins in Aruba, political leaders are raising concerns regarding the quality of educational infrastructure and the strategic use of public funds.

MEP lawmaker Dangui Oduber criticized the government for neglecting school facilities, noting that playgrounds and gyms are in disrepair. He highlighted that despite a government surplus of approximately 700 million florins, promised initiatives such as installing solar panels in schools to reduce electricity costs for parents have not been implemented. Oduber also noted that some teachers are forced to use personal funds to prepare their classrooms.

Simultaneously, PPA leader Eduard Pieters raised concerns regarding a lack of coherence in educational policy. He argued that while Aruba has moved toward a multilingual teaching model that prioritizes a child's mother tongue, schools are spending significant amounts on mathematics materials in Dutch. Pieters characterized this discrepancy as a waste of capital, arguing that students should not be required to learn core subjects like mathematics in a different language from the one in which they are learning to read and write.