Education minister to fund Islamic school
The new Islamic primary school that the Yunus Emre school foundation wants to set up in the Westland may come. Education minister Arie Slob has to pay for the school. The Council of State determined that yesterday. Earlier, the minister and his predecessor tried to stop the arrival of the school.
Image: Martijn Beekman / National government
The Islamic Foundation of the Netherlands for Education and Education (ISNO) Yunus Emre currently has four schools in The Hague. The board wanted to open a new primary school in Westland. To be eligible for funding, the request for a new school must be included in the 'plan of schools' by the Westland municipal council. The council already did this in 2016.
Refuse
On two occasions, Minister Slob and former State Secretary Sander Dekker refused to give permission for this plan. The ministers believe that there is too little interest in an Islamic primary school in the Westland.
If school boards want to establish a new school, they must show in the proposal that there is enough interest in the school. Yunus Emre therefore made a forecast using figures from the municipality of Maastricht. The school board finds these figures comparable to the municipality of Westland when it comes to the composition of the inhabitants and the percentage of non-Western people with an Islamic background.
Absolute numbers
The minister does not think that the two municipalities can be compared. Especially in absolute numbers, there are a lot fewer inhabitants in the Westland with a non-Western Islamic background. During the session, the ministry explained that absolute numbers should be looked at, because the foundation standard concerns absolute numbers. The minister also believes that Maastricht fulfills a regional function much more than Westland.
The administrative judge previously decided that the minister had to reconsider his decision, because there are more children of primary school age in Westland than in Maastricht. "The fact that more primary school children live in the Westland than in Maastricht, almost entirely compensates for the fact that fewer non-western immigrants with an origin from an Islamic country live there," the Council of State said in the ruling.
Comparable
The highest administrative judge judges that Yunus Emre may use the figures of the municipality of Maastricht when applying for a new school. These figures can be compared, which means that the school board can set up a new school and that the minister must pay for it according to the law.
