Junior education minister Marja van Bijsterveldt is to stop funding the capital’s only Islamic high school, the Islamtitische College Amsterdam, because of its poor results and a shortage of pupils.

Funding for new pupils will be stopped on August 1, although current pupils will be able to complete their education at the school, the minister said. Good education is central to her decision, the minister said. ‘Unfortunately that cannot be guaranteed at this school,’ she told news agency ANP.
School chairman Farid Zaari told ANP the college is ‘extremely disappointed’. The school has made improvements in the quality of education offered and was poised to recruit enough new pupils to make it viable again, he said.