Netherlands: Parents demand change of management in elementary schools

Parents of students in the Muslim elementary schools in Almere, Lelystad and Hilversum announced today that they are keeping their children home Tuesday. They demand that the school management resign since they see them as incompetent and unreliable.

The Muslim scools in the three cities are headed by the administrations of the As Siddieq elementary school and of the Amsterdam Islamic College. As Siddieq was accused in the past of doing too little to integrate the students. The school is considered the most conservative elementary school in the Netherlands. The Amsterdam municipality postponed the subsidy for the Islamic College after an investigation of Trouw newspaper showed it to be the worst highschool.

The parents are asking the local and national gov't, the educaiton inspection and the Islamic umbrella organization ISBO to intervene in order to end the influence of the Amsterdam schools. Spokesperson Fariz Akkou said Monday in the radio program De Ochtenden that the parents are striving for a normal school that is part of society. "As Siddieq is not open to society. They do not want, for example to co-operate with a Christian school in Lelystad," said Akkouh.

Source: Telegraaf (Dutch)

See also: Muslim school given last warning, Netherlands: Muslim highschool taken over by extremists?, Netherlands: demand to close down Muslim school

3 comments:

Esther said...

Hi,

Private schools are very common in the Netherlands and do receive gov't funding. There are a lot of different streams and the gov't allows every parents to raise their kids the way they see fit.

These are Muslim parents who *want* to send their kids to a Muslim school, but who also want them to grow up integrated into society. It is the parents' choice to demand a change in management if they think the current management is incompetent. I think that is their right whether they send the kids to a private or public school.

The parents feel that an organization they don't agree with has taken over the schools.

The help in question is not to force one private school to co-operate with another, but rather to help replace the management so it would better fit the parents' world view.

Anonymous said...

If the parents' objective is to replace the school administrators so that the management may fit the parents' worldview better, then why are the parents running to the government to accomplish that? What business is it of the local and national governments to decide who should run a private enterprise? The parents could vote with their feet and go to another school. If enough of them leave, the trustees are bound to change administration or see the school go under.

If private schools receive government funding, then they're not private. Through subsidies the government gains a grip on them. They're quasi-private, which leaves them open to this type of weakness, where parents have to appeal to the state to effect change locally.

That's just plain dumb, especially if the administration that takes over is pro-Muslim and anti-Christian. Why should Christian parents resort to the state to save them from a Muslim take-over of their parochial school? It's crazy! This wouldn't happen if the Christians didn't take money from the state and the school was truly private.

They deserve to lose the school to the Muslims.

Esther said...

Hey,

Without going too much into why the Dutch school system is the way it is - it is certainly different than the one in the US.

However, to explain the article better - this is a Muslim school, with Muslim students and Muslim parents. No Christian school has Muslim management.

The parents are not satisfied with the school and apparently there are no other Muslim schools in the area to which they can send their kids. Since the management in question is being investigated by the gov't and by the education inspection services for a whole list of things starting with fraud and continuing with teaching hatred of non-Muslims , I think they do have a right to turn to the gov't and demand that they do something about it.