Driessen, G., & Merry, M. (2013). Islamic primary schools in the Netherlands. The long and winding road to recognition and success. Invited paper International Symposium of Imam-Hatip High Schools on Their Centennial Day. Istanbul, Turkey, November 23-24, 2013.

1. 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)

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 11. The future of Islamic schools
• Policy shift: quality instead of quantity
• Quality school boards
• Transparency
• Quality teachers
• Academic achievement
• Citizenship, integration