Il massimo dirigente dell’ispettorato dell’istruzione si scaglia contro il ministro Weyts: “I rapporti non vengono pubblicati né modificati”

>The independence of the Flemish education inspectorate is under pressure. This is what CEO Lieven Viaene says, who is leaving his position today. According to him, **reports have been adjusted or not even published in recent years by Minister of Education Ben Weyts (N-VA).** The minister talks about “kicking the bucket”: “the bar had to be raised, including from the inspectorate”.

>Today is the last working day of the Inspector General of the Flemish Education Inspectorate, Lieven Viaene. He says goodbye with mixed feelings. “I am very disappointed about what I have seen happen in the last years of my career,” he says in De Ochtend on Radio 1. According to him, “the independent role that the inspectorate can still play” is under great pressure.

>**The Inspector General is clear: the inspection has been inhibited in recent years by the cabinet of Minister of Education Ben Weyts. “The inspection could no longer independently report what it saw. Some reports we made were not released. The communication from other reports was then taken over. As an inspection, we are no longer allowed to draw up and communicate press releases ourselves.”**

>In concrete terms, **this would include research into air quality in classrooms during the corona pandemic. The report, which was very critical of the situation, would only have been made available much later – and quietly. And that at the request of the cabinet,** says Viaene.

>Other reports – which go against the minister’s policy – were also reportedly suppressed. Press releases were sometimes largely rewritten.