Because of the constitutional Freedom of education in the Netherlands, everyone can establish a school and is entitled tofull state funding. There now are 52 primary Islamic schools, with around 12,500 pupils mostly of Turkish and Moroccandescent. They focus on developing an Islamic religious identity, and high educational quality and pupil achievement.Because most pupils come from socioeconomic disadvantaged backgrounds, the schools receive nearly twice as muchbudget than schools with a predominantly non-disadvantaged population. The existence of Islamic schools has alwaysbeen controversial. Their output in terms of academic achievement is relatively high, however. In an absolute sense theyachieve below the “average” Dutch school, but when compared with schools with the same disadvantaged pupilpopulation, they achieve better. Lately, there have been problems with secondary Islamic schools in the Netherlands. Asa result, several politicians propose to abolish the Freedom of education act. ...