Parenting doesn’t stop when the school bell goes.

That, at least, is the idea in Nijmegen, where the school group Conexus has asked parents to stand in for teachers when the juf or meester is sick, reports the AD.

Anyone qualified as a teacher may teach and any parent can simply volunteer to take care of the lively class of some 20 to 30 kids.

‘We have reached the end of our capacities to solve the shortages [in supply teachers] ourselves,’ Toine Janssen, director of the group of 31 schools, told the AD.

He informed parents of the request for their assistance in a letter this week. The schools have had to send children home in the past school year due to no teacher and is now planning to register this.

There are currently 1,200 too few primary teachers and by 2025, the education ministry expects a shortage of 10,000 as there are not enough trainees to replace those who will retire.

PO-Raad, which represents the interests of those in primary education, was not surprised at the Nijmegen initiative and a spokeswoman told the AD: ‘I expect that there will be even crazier ideas.’

But the school inspectorate told the paper that sometimes children were sent home, although it is not really supposed to happen. ‘The school has a duty of care during school time and must ensure children are properly cared for,’ a spokesman reportedly said.