Amsterdam to use officials, refugees to solve teacher shortage

In the coming school year, Amsterdam will tackle the teacher shortage in primary and secondary education with a team of over 60 municipal officials, four of whom have a teaching qualification. The team will support schools with administration or a class assistant. The four qualified officials will teach where necessary, the Volkskrant reports.

The municipality is also looking into the possibility of putting almost graduated students, with extra guidance, in front of a class room. Fifteen highly qualified refugees are also being prepared to teach. The refugees involve people who were teachers in their country of origin. Most of them will be used for teaching maths in secondary school, according to the newspaper.

"It is an urgent problem", Amsterdam alderman for education Marjolein Moorman said to the newspaper. "We therefore also surveyed our own officials with the question: who can help."

Amsterdam faces an increasingly large shortage in teachers, especially in primary education. Before the summer vacation Amsterdam schools counted some 300 vacancies. Now, with schools starting on Monday, there are still 112 open vacancies, according to the Volkskrant.