Next year, nine out of at least fourteen new primary schools expected to open in the Netherlands will be Islamic. These nine schools have already received approval from the Ministry of Education and will receive public funding starting in August 2026.
This follows an ongoing trend in the Netherlands. Islamic education is on the rise, with more and more religious schools opening each year. The opening of nine Islamic primary schools in 2026 marks a record—the highest number in a single year. Over the past three years, about one in three newly approved primary schools has been Islamic.
Concerns have grown alongside this trend, with some municipalities fearing that children with immigrant backgrounds may be drawn away from mixed schools that promote integration, and into religious Islamic institutions that may reinforce cultural separation.
Geert Wilders, leader of the right-wing Party for Freedom (PVV), reacted to the news on social media platform X, saying: “It is an outrage that out of the 14 new primary schools in the Netherlands in 2026, no fewer than 9 are Islamic. The worst thing for the integration of Islamic children is to go to a school based on an ideology of hate and violence. Islam does not belong in the Netherlands.”
