basic and specialist teacher training
Netherlands - Teacher training - basic and specialist teacher training
Pre-service training programmes
In the Netherlands, it takes four years to gain a mainstream teaching qualification. Primary school teachers study at higher education institutes. They are trained to teach all curriculum subjects, but also a specialist subject. The initial teacher training includes an introduction to educating pupils with special needs. Current government policy requires more knowledge of educating pupils with special needs within teacher training, but the programme is oversubscribed and adding special needs programmes is not easy.