Sanna Munnikendam, education alderman in Zaandam, was unpleasantly surprised to suddenly find posters calling for people to become teachers in Amsterdam throughout her city, Het Parool reports.
The poster shows a smiling woman with a smiling boy. It reads, in childlike writing: "Teacher, you always see what I'm good at". And below that: "Become a teacher in Amsterdam"
"I express myself softly when I say that the action was not pleasantly received here", Munnikendam said to Het Parool.
In an attempt to reduce the teacher shortage in the Dutch capital, Amsterdam is allocating 100 homes for which new teachers will get priority, the city announced on Friday. The city hopes that easier accessibility to housing will make it more attractive for starting teachers to teach in Amsterdam.
The Amsterdam Rainbow Dress, designed to draw attention to the persecution of LGBTQ community members globally, was presented in San Francisco this week by an Amsterdam delegation to honor California's Harvey Milk Day. The dress features 75 national flags of countries where homosexuality is included in the national Criminal Code.
If the PVV wins the parliamentary elections in March and Geert Wilders becomes prime minister, Amsterdam should become a republic, D66 alderman Simone Kukenheim said on Saturday. Wilders responded to this call on Twitter with a Photoshopped image showing D66 leader Alexander Pechtold protesting with what Wilders calls "Hamas-terrorists".
Amsterdam city councilor Samira Bouchiti (VVD) heard "dozens" of accounts of kids being physically assaulted during Koran lessons while she was giving guest lectures at schools in the city. "They're about teachers who strike. Sometimes even with a stick, hits on the fingertips, slaps, ear pulling. It is structural and apparently suits the way in which lessons is given", she said, according to newspaper AD. She raised the issue with the Amsterdam city council and asked the college of mayor and aldermen to investigate.
The city of Amsterdam is tackling an impending shortage of teachers in the city. On Monday the municipality presented its plan to do so, which includes a campaign to recruit teachers, researching the cause of the shortage, guiding new teachers and affordable housing, among other things, Het Parool reports.
For this plan to be effective, the municipality of Amsterdam is teaming up with primary schools, secondary schools and teacher training institutions.
The municipality of Amsterdam is investing 23 million euros into improving the literacy of illiterate people in the city with language lessons, the municipality announced on Friday. In the coming years they hope to reach 14,500 illiterate or low-literate people.
Amsterdam is taking the lead in teaching asylum seekers about gay and women's rights. The municipality does not want to wait any longer and called in professional parties to help with this education. "We expect to start in two weeks", Simone Kukenheim, alderman for Education and Diversity, said
Amsterdam decided to give lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender refugees shelter separate from the other asylum seekers following a number of threats and other incidents, Het Parool reported on Friday.
Since the responsibility of naturalization and integration shifted from the municipality to newcomers in the Netherlands themselves in 2013, both the number of people taking the integration exam and the pass rate has declined.
Youth Alderman Simone Kukenheim is very concerned about the revelations made by the VARA program Rambam about the Amsterdam Church of Scientology. "If the media reports are correct, I find it very disturbing", the alderman said to AT5.
A number of politicians think that the budget for school buildings should be better distributed between small towns and large cities. There may soon be a shortage of schools in the big cities because more and more people with children move there.
Amsterdam presented a new initiative to improve the quality of life for sexually diverse people in the city on Thursday. The project, called Roze Agenda or Pink Agenda, is mainly aimed at increasing the feeling of security and welcome for gay people in Amsterdam.
Friday marks the official opening of De Ontplooiing, the first Steve Jobs-inspired school in Amsterdam. Aiming to eliminate the traditional method of classroom teaching, this new style of schooling is more reliant on new technology, and gives students the freedom to learn at their own pace.
