Analysis of hearing on Covid: former minister Van Engelshoven faced no tough questions

Lockdowns, self-tests, online exams, waste of money… The parliamentary inquiry committee on Covid appeared poorly prepared for the hearing of former education minister Ingrid van Engelshoven.

Student wellbeing took a hit during the coronavirus crisis. They were not allowed on campus and could not go to pubs either. Student associations could do little. Was that really their student experience?

Last Monday, former education minister Ingrid van Engelshoven appeared before a parliamentary inquiry committee that aims to draw lessons from the Covid crisis. But Van Engelshoven did not give much away. She could not recall details and kept repeating the same line: it was not ideal, but there was little else we could do.

The committee did not make a sharp impression. Even the very first question: “What is your view, as education minister, on education?” Van Engelshoven nearly laughed: “That is quite a broad question.” It led nowhere.

Controversial issues

Strikingly, the most controversial issues during the Covid crisis were barely discussed. Universities of applied sciences and universities responded very slowly to the arrival of the virus. Even when Covid was spreading in Italy, they were still reluctant to consider an outbreak in the Netherlands. Only once it arrived did they fully mobilise. This was not addressed during the hearing.

Or take the free self-tests the government purchased for higher education. They cost hundreds of millions of euros, and even after a pilot it was clear the voluntary tests would not be effective. Van Engelshoven later acknowledged this as well. But during the hearing she referred to the self-tests as an example of good coordination with institutions.

Privacy and cameras

Another notable issue at the time was the handling of student privacy. During online exams, institutions used “proctoring”, meaning cameras and monitoring software on students’ laptops. Van Engelshoven: “Students often felt it was a very serious invasion of their privacy, having to keep their camera on and show their room. I can fully understand that people would feel that way.”

But the institutions also wanted to safeguard exam quality, she added, and she understood that too. “You have to discuss that properly with each other”, she told the Covid committee, “but in the end we always managed to align.”

Aligned? Student representatives are likely to disagree. They had no say in the use of proctoring. Tensions ran high among students. At the time, Van Engelshoven said they should not be so difficult. “In times like these, everyone sometimes has to accept things that are less pleasant”, she said then. It even led to court cases, but the parliamentary committee did not ask about this.

Student wellbeing

And student wellbeing? As early as October 2020, six months into the crisis, students protested at Museumplein in Amsterdam, carefully spaced 1.5 metres apart. They demanded more teaching and more creative solutions.

In hindsight, Van Engelshoven says her ministry should have done more “upstream thinking”, so that the knowledge and expertise of educational institutions could be used for tailored solutions. That did not happen, and she did not give the impression – neither at the time nor during the hearing – that she saw this as a major problem.

QR codes

During the crisis, even the possibility of keeping education open using a Covid access pass was considered: only vaccinated students with a QR code would be allowed on campus. Van Engelshoven herself raised this during the hearing.

Question from the committee: “Did you seriously consider this?” Yes, was the answer. In fact, unbeknownst to the committee, a general administrative order had already been sent to the House of Representatives to enable such access passes in higher education.

She said she would not have been happy with it. She called it “a very heavy measure”, because “it also means making things harder for people who did not want or were unable to obtain a Covid access pass.” And then the committee moved on to something else again.