Dutch Islamic schools improve performance

Islamic schools in the Netherlands have greatly improved the academic performances of their students in only a few years. The Ministry of Education has congratulated the schools for making rapid improvements since a damning report was published in 2008.

Iin March 2011, one-fifth of Dutch Islamic primary schools obtained a poor performance score and 7.5 percent were deemed very poor in performance. Now, none of the Islamic schools in the Netherlands are considered to have a very poor performance and in September 2011 only one of these school was listed as having a poor performance.

At the end of 2008, education inspectors sounded the alarm about significant structural problems in Islamic primary schooling, including the quality of the education on offer and the functioning of school administrators. ISBO, an umbrella organisation of Islamic schools, decided to push for structural improvements in the quality of Islamic education.

Currently, 36 primary schools, with a total of 8000 students, are members of ISBO. Only one of these primary school is still deemed poor in academic performance. ISBO director Yusuf Altuntas expect that this school will have improved its score by September. Seven Dutch Islamic schools are not ISBO members.

(dcf)