Sta Hungry Stay Foolish

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

A blog by Leon Oudejans

Dutch public school system

In the Netherlands, we have 2 types of state funded education which are both public schools but differ in their (non) religious background. Essentially, Christian and other religious people often attend Christian public schools, while others attend regular public schools. The Dutch call this freedom of education, a principle that was hardly questioned.

Since about a decade, there has been a rise in Islamic public schools in major Dutch cities. They apply for similar government funds as Christian public schools. These Islamic schools have had the usual growth problems like any startup. Recently, Dutch intelligence agencies warned that some Islamic public schools have links to terrorism (eg, NL Times).

Subsequently, one of the coalition partners in the Dutch government advocated that the government should no longer fund (all) public schools with a religious background. Dijkhoff claims that it’s time to abolish article 23 of the Dutch Constitution that warrants freedom of education. The reason being the continued wrongdoings at Islamic public schools (eg, Elsevier).

Abolishing state funding to all public schools with a religious background reminds me of a Dutch saying: “het kind met het badwater weggooien“, which would translate in English like “throwing the baby out with the bathwater“. Indeed, you have to get rid of the dirt but the solution is not to get rid of everything else as well. Especially, when these other things work well.

Dijkhoff‘s proposal will divide the coalition partners, of which 2 have a Christian and 2 have a liberal background. Hence, nothing is likely to happen. Article 23 has long been a (minor) target of Dutch liberal parties, whether left (D66) or right (VVD). The continued Islamic public school dramas are however quite convenient in this fundamental discussion.

I’m somewhat biased because my childhood education was at Christian public schools, and my children’s education also. Christian public schools usually have a (much) better reputation than regular public schools. One of the reasons (probably) is school size. Regular public schools are/were rather massive and have nicknames like “school factories“.

It’s somewhat ironic that liberal parties want to abolish the freedom of education while the Latin word liber stands for free(dom). The problem with any freedom, however, is that it will someday be misused or even abused by people with ulterior motives.

The Political Islam usually handles criticism from a victim role: (i) interference in political matters is viewed as anti-semitic (in its true meaning), while (ii) non-interference in religious matters is viewed a lack of political support (my 2016 blog). This explains the evasive responses by Islamic public schools.

School (1974) by Roger Hodgson (formerly singer in Supertramp)

artist, lyrics, video, Wiki-1, Wiki-2, Wiki-3

Maybe I’m mistaken, expecting you to fight

Or maybe I’m just crazy, I don’t know wrong from right

But while I am still living, I’ve just got this to say

It’s always up to you, if you want to be that

Want to see that

Want to see it that way

— you’re coming along!

Note: all markings (bolditalicunderlining) by LO unless stated otherwise

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