Page 45 - TWO OF A KIND • Erik Renkema

MERGING IDENTITIES. EXPERIMENTS IN DUTCH PRIMARY EDUCATION
which the content of the tradition is taught. Also specific traditional feasts and
other activities are celebrated (Kuyk 2012). 2 And thirdly, like public schools, non-government schools are obliged by law to
pay attention to the education about different religions and life stances. “For the
religiously affiliated schools this is often related, however, to the religious education
as it is taught in accordance with the particular identity of the school” (Kuyk, 2012,
136).
3. The cooperation school and religious identity
In 2006, the possibility to create a cooperation school was founded in an adjustment of the Dutch Constitution. The Dutch parliament agreed on an addition in which it was stated that public education can be received “whether or not in a public school” (Dutch Constitution, Article 23, section 4). Local authorities are obliged to ensure that students receive public education (Noorlander and Zoontjens 2011). This means that they have the right to attend a school where religiously neutral education is ensured. If there is no possibility to maintain a public school in a village or a part of a city, the authorities have to ensure that public education is realized in a different way. One of these ways is a cooperation school. By law, the cooperation school, according to the value of public education, therefore has to be accessible for all students, no matter their religion or worldview (Noorlander 2011; Eerste Kamer der Staten-Generaal 2011). Yet, a cooperation school is neither a specific public school, nor a school for non-government education. Hence the adjustment in the Constitution: public education is not necessarily to be given at a public school.
Here it must be added that a cooperation school cannot be founded: an entirely new school is not allowed to be a cooperation school. It can only be a product of a merger of two or more schools of different identities or a product of the (expected) closing down of one school and the expansion of the other with the type of education that was given at the school that was closed down or is expected to close down. (Onderwijsraad 2000; Zoontjens 2003; Noorlander 2011; Huisman 2010).
Cooperation schools appear in those areas in which the number of students decreases. In 2006, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science counted the number of cooperation schools for primary education (Centrale Financiën Instellingen 2006). The list indicates that in 2002 20 (0,28% of all primary schools)
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