Thousands of secondary school students are beginning the new school year without the required textbooks, the AD reported on Tuesday.

The main provider of secondary school books, Van Dijk Educatie, says pupils were late ordering their books and that the company has been struggling with a shortage of staff.

According to the company some 7,500 students do not have all their required books, of whom some have none at all.

‘We ask our customers to order well beforehand. But just before the schools in the north of the country started on Monday,  3,000 orders came in. And that means we can’t deliver on time,’ spokesperson Martin van Putten told the paper.

But the AD spoke to pupils who have been waiting for their books for months and are making do with photocopies. ‘I look at the other students with their heavy bags and think: I wish I had a heavy bag like them,’ Imke Harstra (14), a pupil at the Noordgouw school from Heerde told the paper.

Secondary schools council VO raad is concerned about the delivery problems and want to talk to Van Dijk, which expects to have solved the problem by the end of the week.