Driessen, G., & Merry, M. (2005). Islam and school: The Dutch experience. Invited paper international CIPMO conference on Islam ‘Islam in Europe. European Islam’. Milan, Italy, June 22-23, 2005.

1. 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)

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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)

6. 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)

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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.

10. 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’

11. 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)