Gov't halves tuition for teachers-in-training to fight teacher shortage

All students in the Netherlands studying to be a teacher will only pay half of their tuition fee for the first two years of their studies, Minister Ingrid van Engelshoven of Education, Culture and Science announced. With this measure, the government hopes to combat the growing shortage of teachers by encouraging young people to chose the profession, NOS reports.

The Rutte III coalition agreement already states that students studying to be primary school teachers will get a 50 percent discount on their first two years' tuition fees. Van Engelshoven now decided to extend this measure to all types of teacher training. The measure applies from the next academic year for students starting their first year of study.

Schools have an increasingly hard time finding replacements and stand ins for teachers who fall ill or need to take off work for another reason, according to NOS. "The shortage of teachers therefore poses a large, common task for education. While the shortage is happening slower than previously estimated, action on this is desperately needed", the Minister said.