Primary schools in the Netherlands face a shortage of 1,300 teachers after the summer holidays, according to a poll of school heads by sector organisation PO-Raad.

Tens of thousands of pupils will be affected by the teacher shortage and school heads are being forced to take emergency measures to soften the impact, the council said. This will involve using more part-time and trainee teachers and taking on more classroom assistants.

‘We have a major problem which will impact not only on pupils but society in general,’ chairwoman Rinda den Besten said. ‘We need a solution in the short term, otherwise a complete generation will not enjoy education of the proper quality.’

In total, 315 school heads, representing over 500,000 pupils, took part in the survey. More than half said they had vacancies and one in four said they would not fill these vacancies before the end of the summer holidays.

School heads wrote to the education ministry at the end of May demanding that the government take action to tackle the shortage of teachers.