Islam and School: The Dutch Experience

Dr. Geert Driessen – ITS, Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands

Dr. Michael S. Merry – University of

Wisconsin-Madison, USA

contact: www.geertdriessen.nl

Paper conference ‘Islam in Europe’ 22-23 June 2005, Milan (IT)

Non-western immigrants 10% of the Dutch population of 16,5 Mil.: • from former colonies (e.g., Surinam) • labor immigrants (‘guestworkers’; e.g.,

Turkey, Morocco) • asylum seekers (e.g., Middle East) Muslims 6% of the Dutch population (or 1 Mil.): • Turkish: 320.000 • Moroccan: 285.000 • other (Iran, Iraq, Somalia, Yugoslavia,

Afghanistan, Surinam) Characteristics Muslim population is steadily growing Many immigrants have a low level of education,

are illiterate, have no job, are on social welfare; Immigrants are overrepresented in crime-statistics

1. Muslims in the Netherlands

Freedom of education: • to establish a school • to teach according to a particular ideology

or educational principle • to choose a school The right to equal funding by the

government for all denominations Primary schools • Public: 34% • Protestant 30% • Catholic: 30% • Other (e.g., Islamic, Hindu, Jena Plan,

Montessori): 7%

2. Freedom of Education

1988: 2 Islamic primary schools 2005: 41 Islamic primary schools, 2 secondary

schools, 2 universities A need for another 120 primary Islamic schools Total number of primary schools: 7000 with

1,550,000 students (100,000 Turkish and Moroccan)

Islamic schools: 41 with 8400 students (37%

Turkish, 40% Moroccan) 95% from socioeconomically disadvantaged

backgrounds

3. The Founding of Islamic Schools

At existing public and denominational schools: • No possibilities to fast and pray • No clothing regulations • Boys and girls mixed • No attention for sense of identity • No Islamic religious instruction • No (religious) emancipation • Poor educational results • No parental participation

4. Motives and Goals (1)

Goals 1. Religious and cultural personality

development in the spirit of Islam 2. Improving the quality of education, i.e. the

students’ achievement levels Motives against seperate Islamic schools •They will lead to isolation and segregation • No real justice to Western norms and values • Result in an exodus from existing schools • More a political affair than a religious one • For orthodox and fundamentalistic groups

4. Motives and Goals (2)

5. Empirical Studies into Islamic Schools: Some Results (1)

‘Liberal’ versus ‘orthodox’ schools • 15% liberal • 35% orthodox, focus on the Netherlands • 50% orthodox, focus on Islamic society Links with very orthodox foreign political-

religious organizations Islamic schools: characteristics parents • greater role of Islam in upbringing • less focused on Dutch society • less usage of Dutch language • less integrated, more segregated

5. Empirical Studies into Islamic Schools: Some Results (2)

Islamic schools: teachers and principals • 70% non-Muslim • relatively young, less experienced • traditional educational approach • problems with Religious Instruction teachers: not qualified, in Arabic • difficulties with parental involvement and

participation • problematic position of principals: non-Muslim team vs. orthodox board

5. Empirical Studies into Islamic Schools: Some Results (3)

Islamic schools: students’ results • Same results as other schools with many

socioeconomically disadvantaged students. • But lagging far behind average school with

regard to language and math proficiency.

6. Recent Developments

• ‘9/11’, ‘Madrid’, murder Theo van Gogh • Economic recession, social welfare state

untenable • Political climate: change from left to right

(populistic Pim Fortuyn) • Immigrant policy: from integration with

maintenance of own culture to assimilation • Stop to ‘import marriages’

7. Conclusions

Restriction establishment new Islamic schools • All board members must have Dutch

nationality • No more than 80% of socioeconomically

disadvantaged students • Make a plan how to prepare students for

integration in Dutch society Alternatives • Other schools with many disadvantaged

students (‘black schools’) • Home schooling (no state funding, no

control) • Mosques (not subject to state control)