Islamic primary schools in the Netherlands The long and winding road to recognition and success

Dr. Geert Driessen – ITS, Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands Prof. Michael S. Merry – University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Contact: www.geertdriessen.nl

g.driessen@its.ru.nl

Paper International symposium of Imam Hatip high schools 23-24 November 2013, Istanbul (TR)

Non-western immigrants 11% of the Dutch population of 16,7 million: • former colonies (e.g., Surinam) • labor immigrants (‘guest-workers’; e.g., Turkey, Morocco) • asylum seekers (e.g., Middle East) Socio-economic position Many immigrants: low level of education, illiterate, no job, on social welfare, in crime-statistics Muslims 825,000 or 5% of the Dutch population: • Turkish: 285,000 • Moroccan: 296,000 • other: Iran, Iraq, Somalia, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Surinam,

native Dutch converts

1. Muslims in the Netherlands

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

persuasion or educational principle • to choose a school The right to equal funding by the government for all

denominations Primary schools • Public: 30% • Protestant 33% • Catholic: 30% • Other (e.g., Islamic, Hindu, Jewish, Montessori): 7%

2. Education in the Netherlands

1988: 2 Islamic primary schools 2013: 43 Islamic primary schools, 1 secondary school, 2

universities Total number of primary schools: 6,800 with 1,550,000 pupils

(85,000 Turkish or Moroccan origin) 13% from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds Islamic primary schools: 43 with 9,300 pupils (30% Turkish,

40% Moroccan) 48% from socio-economically 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 paid to own identity • No Islamic religious instruction • No religious emancipation • Poor educational results • No parental participation Motives against separate Islamic schools • They will lead to isolation and segregation instead of integration • 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 for and against

1. Religious and cultural personality development in the spirit of Islam 2. Improving the quality of education, i.e. the pupils’

achievement levels

5. Goals

6. Empirical studies: the schools

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

7. Empirical studies: the parents

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

8. Empirical studies: the staff

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. (often) orthodox board

Islamic schools versus schools with a comparable pupil population: • Achievement: the same or somewhat better • Attitudes, citizenship: the same or somewhat better Islamic schools versus the average Dutch school: • Achievement: somewhat worse • Attitudes, citizenship: somewhat better to much better

9. Empirical studies: output

10. Recent developments

• ‘9/11’, murder Dutch film maker Theo van Gogh • Economic recession • Political climate: change from left to right (populist anti-Islam

party) • Immigrant policy: from integration with maintenance of own

culture to assimilation • Widespread fraud and malfunctioning of Islamic school

boards • Islamic schools under scrutiny

11. The future of Islamic schools

• Policy shift: quality instead of quantity • Quality school boards • Transparency • Quality teachers • Academic achievement • Citizenship, integration