The future of the much-discussed Cornelius Haga Lyceum in Amsterdam is at stake now that the school’s popularity is declining sharply. More than forty group eight students have been placed at the Haga for next year, initiates report NRC† That is about a half compared to last year (88) and a third of the 136 students who registered in 2020. On Thursday, Amsterdam children will be told which secondary school they will be assigned to next year.
Due to the limited enrollment, the current number of pupils at the Haga (478) is stagnating or shrinking and the school does not meet the standard set for it (488); more than forty children are taking their final exams this year and an unknown number are leaving for other secondary schools. If the Haga does not attract enough students for another two years, education minister Dennis Wiersma (VVD) can close the school. In addition, competition is looming: Wiersma will determine in May whether two other Amsterdam Islamic school initiatives may open from 2023.
The Haga decline follows on from previous problems for the school – and may be related to them. The Education Inspectorate labeled the school in February as ‘very weak’ and Wiersma announced “hefty funding sanctions” if it did not improve Haga within a year, in addition to an interim sanction that the Inspectorate is now considering.
And the Amsterdam court determined last week that the Haga former director Soner Atasoy owes 100,000 euros because of his wrongful dismissal in 2020. Atasoy had initially demanded five tons, but reduced that amount sharply when it turned out that such compensation would mean Haga’s bankruptcy. At the request of NRC whether this lower amount also puts the school in a bind, current administrators Mohammed Laamimach and Kudret Çamdere do not respond, nor do they respond to questions about the registration numbers.
Also read this reconstruction of how the Education Inspectorate in 2019 went out of her way at the Haga Lyceum
AIVD warnings
The history of Haga – one of the two Islamic secondary schools in the Netherlands – is a turbulent one. Shortly after its predecessor, the Islamic College Amsterdam, was closed in 2010 due to an outage following poor inspection assessments, the Haga board applied for funding for a new school. Six years of litigation against the government followed and when the school was finally allowed to open in 2017, it did not take long before the AIVD warned against Salafist influences. Despite extensive research, the Education Inspectorate did not find it. She did, however, write a very critical report on finances, among other things, after which the then minister of education Arie Slob (ChristenUnie) demanded the resignation of the entire board (including Atasoy and Laamimach).
The judge whistled Slob back, because his accusations were insufficiently substantiated. That seemed to be the end, but an internal power struggle soon erupted and Atasoy was fired by Laamimach. Four (interim) directors followed each other in rapid succession, while part of the school continued to support Atasoy. He is still trying to regain his place through lawsuits.