Primary school closes due to teacher shortage
The teacher shortage in the Netherlands is claiming its first victim, Het Parool reports. The 16th Montessori primary school in Amsterdam Southeast has to close because there are too few teachers.
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'We can no longer guarantee good education,' says school board member Hubert de Waard the Parool. "We have not been able to form a full team for the students." The parents of the more than a hundred students were informed on Thursday evening.
The school has long tried to solve the problems with hired teachers and freelancers, but continued to lack teachers structurally. Because it was a small school, it was also difficult to distribute students among other classes.
Autumn
The school will close its doors on January 1, but after the autumn break, the students from the upper years - where the teacher shortage is the greatest - must have already left the school.
This is going to happen more often - just like with the four-day school week
“A horrible situation - for the students, the parents and the staff,” says AObchairman Liesbeth Verheggen. “And I'm afraid that this will happen more often in the future. This was also the case with the four-day school week: once there was one school across the dam, more followed. This closure is a strong signal to politicians: money needs to be added for education. ”
Cry for help
In Het Parool, de Waard also calls the closure 'a cry for help'. According to him, education is still not taken seriously, because not a cent was added with Prinsjesdag. 'Let the closure of this school be a signal for the whole of the Netherlands.'
