Abstract
ABSTRACTDuring the last 20 years of the 20th century, Islamic primary schools were founded in the Netherlands thanks to its constitutional “freedom of education” (which allows state-funded religious schools), its voucher system (each school receives the same amount of money per pupil), and school choice by parents. This essay gives some background information about the Dutch system of religious schools and the history of Dutch Islamic schools.1 I address four aspects of Islamic schools: (a) contradictions around the quality of education in Islamic schools; (b) attitudes and values of pupils and parents in Islamic schools, deviating from the broader Dutch society; (c) serious administrative problems around establishing and running Islamic schools, due to the nonexistence of Islamic Dutch elites and teachers; and (d) negative relations between the current Islam religion and educational performance in modern societies.
Highlights
Founding and maintaining religious schools in the Netherlands is relatively quite simple, since the great political compromise of 1917
The percentage of parents with low education are provided by the schools: high percentages give them more funding. This computation shows that Islamic schools have a higher final test score one might expect given the social background of the parents of the pupils, around 1.6 points
Catholic and Protestant schools have the same problem attracting believing teachers, due to the high level of secularization in the Netherlands
Summary
Founding and maintaining religious schools in the Netherlands is relatively quite simple, since the great political compromise of 1917 (the socalled school pacification). The percentage of parents with low education are provided by the schools: high percentages give them more funding This computation shows that Islamic schools have a higher final test score one might expect given the social background of the parents of the pupils, around 1.6 points. If that quality is too low without prospects of improvement the school will be closed down (formally they do not receive the state grant anymore, and are insolvent) This lack of well-educated and well-connected believers means that Islamic schools miss a common network with the Dutch authorities and society at large. The secularized parents of pupils attending Catholic and Protestant schools do not care much whether the teachers believe or do not believe (Dijkstra et al, 2004), but the parents of Islamic schools value religion as important in upbringing of their children (see Table 3). An example of such an adjustment is Catholicism, which adjusted to capitalism without losing its critical stance toward gluttony
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