Islamic school in Amsterdam is being mismanaged: Education Inspectorate
The board of the Cornelius Haga Lyceum in Amsterdam is guilty of mismanaging the Islamic secondary school, the Education Inspectorate concluded. According to the Inspectorate, the Islamic Education Foundation (SIO), the school’s government body, has done insufficient work since 2022 to improve the persistently poor quality of education, NOS reports.
According to the Inspectorate, the board has no system in place to monitor and improve the quality of education. The school's results are cause for major concern, particularly on the lower secondary general education (MAVO) level. For the past three years, only about 35 percent of MAVO students at the Cornelius Haga Lyceum have passed their final exams. The national average pass rate is 91 percent.
The board also fails to meet legal requirements for good governance and internal supervision. Responsibilities within the organization are unclearly distributed, there is no legally required professional statute for teachers, and employee participation does not function as prescribed by law.
The Inspectorate also noted that the board has little insight into its own organization. It was unaware of an internal investigation, which revealed that some staff members sometimes feel unsafe and believe the board does not take concerns seriously enough.
The Inspectorate has once again given the board a list of corrective measures, but has little confidence that these will be implemented. According to the Inspectorate, the board has failed to implement previous improvement plans and, after years, still has no functioning quality assurance system. The Inspectorate has, therefore, asked State Secretary Judith Tielen of Education to intervene.
The State Secretary wrote to parliament: “I share the Inspectorate’s concerns and am considering next steps in which the interests of the students will be paramount.”
In a response, the SIO said that it takes the Inspectorate’s improvement plans seriously and acknowledged that the quality of education needs to improve in certain areas.
However, the foundation denies that the school is being mismanaged. According to the board, that conclusion is insufficiently substantiated, and the Inspectorate relies too heavily on interpretations, oral statements, and missing documentation. The SIO may take legal steps if the Inspectorate does not change the conclusion.
