Primary and secondary schools and vocational colleges are struggling with a shortage of 13,000 teachers and the number is expected to remain high for several years, education ministers Eppo Bruins and Mariëlle Paul have warned.

The shortfall in primary schools was cut by 2,000 to 7,700 last year, but this was partly due to temporary measures to allow children to catch up after the pandemic shutdown between 2020 and 2022. The extra funding will stop at the end of the current school year.

Secondary schools are missing 3,800 full-time teachers, the same number as in 2023, with shortages expected to get worse in subjects such as Dutch, German and science, where not enough trainee teachers are coming through the system.

In vocational mbo colleges, which were included for the first time in the education ministry’s survey, the number of full-time vacancies was measured at between 900 and 1,400.

The problem is acutest in the major cities, where some schools have had to go down to a four-day week because they do not have enough qualified staff.

The government has tried to encourage teachers to switch subjects or recruit staff from other lines of work, known as zij-instromers, with an accelerated part-time training programme that allows trainees to start teaching before they are fully qualified.

There are currently 2,244 career-switch teachers working across the education sector, marginally fewer than in 2023.

“We are continuing to work on making these training schemes attractive for both initial students and career switchers,” Bruins wrote in a letter to parliament. “For instance, we are working with trainers and people in the sector on a curriculum that is better aligned with future teaching practices in schools.”

The government is also spending €214 million on strengthening regional education authorities and arranging extra training for 60,000 working teachers to improve standards.