More university students are opting for teacher training courses, raising hopes of an end to the shortage of staff in schools, latest figures show.

The number of new registrations increased by 13.5% last year, according to figures from Universiteiten van Nederland (UNL) reported by Trouw.

UNL chairman Caspar van den Berg said the development was “very good news” for efforts to tackle a nationwide shortage of 13,000 teachers in primary, secondary and vocational college education.

Some schools in the major cities have had to cut their timetable to a four-day week because of staff shortages.

“In the last few years universities have started more courses and put a lot of effort into promoting university teaching courses, ” Van den Berg said. “We are now reaping the benefits.”

Universities have introduced accelerated courses to get trainee teachers into work faster and concentrated on subjects with the most acute shortages, such as maths and science.

Matriculations for the latter category were up by 14% last year, while languages, which are also struggling with a lack of qualified staff, grew by a more modest 6.8%.

The biggest rise in applications was for the one-year masters course, which grew by 21.5% in the last year.

But the colleges’ association Vereniging Hogescholen said in February that applications for regular teacher training courses had also increased for the second year in a row.