A group of 55 Catholic primary schools in the Rotterdam area have been given the green light to take over a teacher training college in the city, the Volkskrant reports on Tuesday.

Junior education minister Halbe Zijlstra has said he will change the law to make the takeover possible. The Thomas More college is part of Leiden’s hbo college which is funded by a different source, making the law change necessary.
The schools said in April last year they wanted to take over the unit to train their own teachers to ‘better deal with teaching in a big city’. Some 35% of parents are on minimum incomes and many of the pupils are disadvantaged, the school group’s chairman Frie van Os said.