The papers ask whether it’s possible to run a reasonable train service in bad winter weather and a minister plans to shake up education. Dutch Jews are told to stay put, an Ajax manager throws in the towel and an explosion rips through an apartment building - the Dutch papers today.

Most of today’s papers cover the disunity among European Union leaders about the best way to tackle the euro crisis. However, it’s an issue closer to home that gets the most high-profile coverage.

“Get used to it” is the headline in nrc.next. The background photo shows a blank train-timetable board: all the trains have been cancelled. The Dutch rail network was supposed to be ready for the winter, but last weekend’s heavy snow showed it to be anything but proof against the cold weather, scoffs the paper.

After last year’s winter rail chaos, the boss of rail infrastructure company ProRail said: “We won’t be caught out again” and, in a recent publicity campaign, ProRail claimed the network was “ready for the winter”. But, explains the paper, this just isn’t possible. When it snows, no one is surprised at huge traffic jams or cancelled planes. Similarly, it makes sense that heavy snow is bound to disrupt the trains. “But if you know that winter weather can lead to disruption, why launch a major publicity campaign saying you’re ready for it?” complains a commuters’ organisation spokesman.

Trouw, however, doesn’t agree. It’s not the snow but years of cutting maintenance on the lines that has caused the trouble. And now that a huge backlog of maintenance needs to be dealt with, there are too few qualified personnel to do the work. There are almost 9000 heaters for points installed on the Dutch rail network. “Sometimes, we’re amazed that parts we see on the rails still work. Take electrical heaters for points. You have to replace them as a preventative measure and not wait for them to break,” explains one supplier.

Minister promises schools shake-up
Today’s de Volkskrant leads with the news that the academic performance of Dutch school students has again slipped in the international education league table. The PISA 2009 report shows how well 15-year-olds are doing in the 65 most developed countries. “We see that we’ve dropped again in the fields of arithmetic and maths, and in the sciences,” Education Minister Marja van Bijsterveldt tells the paper.

The minister is introducing a number of measures she hopes will push the Netherlands into the top five countries. She thinks secondary schools try to cover too varied a list of subjects to the detriment of the basics, which she describes as Dutch, English, Maths and the sciences. She is critical of all sorts of social courses being taught in Dutch schools. “Subjects range from ‘obesity’ to ‘how not to get into debt’. Very important, but these are things for elsewhere, not for teaching in schools. Here, it should be about acquiring learning,” Ms Van Bijsterveld says.

She intends to introduce final exams for all primary schools, so that “pupils really qualify to go on to secondary education”. She also plans to streamline the examination courses in high-level secondary schools, returning to what the paper describes as the old arts or sciences choice. “This,” she argues, “will also be easier for the schools to organise.”

Furore over ‘call for Jews to emigrate’
De Volkskrant also covers the furore generated by comments made by former conservative VVD party leader, minister and European Commissioner Frits Bolkestein. He said he could see no future for conspicuously Jewish people, such as Orthodox Jews, in the Netherlands because of the anti-Semitism of badly integrated Muslim immigrants. His words were seen as a call for Dutch Jews to emigrate.

Politicians from left to right are up in arms, says the paper, at the crop of headlines resulting from Mr Bolkestein’s remarks. Freedom party leader Geert Wilders says: “It’s not the Jews who should emigrate, but Moroccans who are guilty of anti-Semitism”. Green Left leader Femke Halsema asks if Mr Bolkestein has “gone crackers”. “People under threat in their own country must be protected,” she argues.

Ajax manager quits after criticism
“Jol throws the towel in the ring” announces De Telegraaf. Martin Jol’s sudden announcement that he was resigning as manager of Amsterdam’s Ajax football club came last night. Frank de Boer has been named interim trainer and will be travelling to Milan with the squad today where they will be fighting for a place in the Europa League.

The paper reminds its mass readership of Jol’s considerable salary and of the high expectations that met him when he took on the Ajax job. He has not been able to meet those expectations, and now that things are going worse than ever has decided to quit. It suspects he will go to Newcastle or HSV.

De Volkskrant says Jol is yet another trainer who has been worn down by Ajax. He was the eighth man to have resigned or been sacked from the job in just over 12 years. The paper mentions that the chorus of criticism aimed at Jol led to turmoil, especially after Ajax’ iconic former player Johan Cruyff joined in the debate about what was going wrong with the club.

Two tales of destruction
Finally, the same story graces the front pages of the AD and De Telegraaf today. Both papers show the same horrifying photograph of a partially destroyed apartment building on fire after an explosion. The man who lived in the flat where the blast occurred died, two other people were slightly injured and over 80 families had to be evacuated. However, the two papers have very different views on the possible cause of the disaster.

“Resident thought to have blown up home” is AD’s take on the story. The man is question, who died in the blast, had already attempted suicide once. Police and residents think it’s possible he may have caused a gas explosion with the aim of killing himself, the paper says.

“Panic after hellish explosion in flat”, is De Telegraaf’s headline, but it goes on: “Resident put in lots of pipes himself”. The 46-year-old man was a real do-it-yourself enthusiast, we are told, and “not 100 percent”. One resident confides to the paper: “The explosion could well have been the result of one of his do-it-yourself jobs”.