O4NT / Steve JobsScholen (iPad schools)
Description
Personalized learning school model driven by Maurice de Hond under the O4NT foundation. The first 7 Steve JobsScholen opened in August 2013: no textbooks or fixed schedules, each student with an iPad, 30-minute workshops, teachers as coaches. It reached 22 schools in 2015, far from the 100-200 announced. Half abandoned the concept due to software and training costs and pedagogical dissatisfaction; De Hond withdrew in 2017 and the foundation went bankrupt in February 2018, with DUO claiming just over 200,000 euros. The Zembla program documented the collapse.
Lessons learned
1) Putting the tool (iPad) rather than pedagogy at the center erodes teacher support; 2) the business model (licenses and training charged to schools after launch) proved unsustainable for public school budgets; 3) dependence on a single media figure made the project fragile; 4) scaling by announcement (100-200 schools promised, 14-22 real) without evidence of results destroyed credibility; 5) without early independent evaluation, the disappointing results became known too late.