A primary school linked to the far-right Forum for Democracy (FVD) has opened with state funding in Almere, teaching pupils that “the old Europe was better than the new,” and doing away with the “dogma of equality”.
The “Renaissance School” started with one class of 18 four and five-year-olds. Its founders say the curriculum follows the view of humanity found in classical antiquity, the middle ages and the early modern period.
The school’s site says it approaches scientific views such as climate change as “falsifiable theories” and that boys and girls may be taught differently in recognition of biological differences, NRC reported.
School head Douwe Filz told De Telegraaf that classes are mixed and there are no separate subjects for boys or girls, although material may be presented in different ways.
Pupils are taught Latin and English alongside Dutch, and the school works with printed books, has no wifi and makes limited use of computers.
FVD has presented its Renaissance schools as an answer to what it calls left-wing indoctrination in the classroom, a theme it has pursued since setting up a reporting hotline for pupils in 2019. Ralf Dekker, who led the project for the party, told NOS in 2022 there would be “no woke thinking in the teaching material”.
The school is run by Stichting Tocqueville, formally separate from FVD, although several of its board members and staff are active in the party. Party chairman Thierry Baudet has described it as part of an FVD pillar alongside the party itself.
Questions in parliament
VVD MP Arend Kisteman and D66 MP Ilana Rooderkerk have written parliamentary questions about the school, which will be answered when parliament reconvenes after August 31.
“It is too easy to set up a small school in the Netherlands,” Kisteman told De Telegraaf. “That worsens the teacher shortage and the taxpayer picks up the bill.”
Rooderkerk told the paper she wanted inspectors to step in before four-year-olds were indoctrinated with FVD’s ideas. Judith Tielen, the VVD junior education minister, is drawing up options for tightening the rules and said inspectors would carry out a full quality inspection within the school’s first year.
The Dutch constitution has allowed publicly funded faith and worldview schools since 1917. Most of those founded since a 2020 law relaxed the rules are faith schools, the biggest share of them are Islamic.
Market research tactics
Schools seeking state funding normally have to collect 100 signed declarations from parents, which FVD failed to do.
Instead, the school’s backers used market research to show that the population of the area will increase, boosting the need for a new school.
An earlier attempt to open the Renaissance School in Almere, which was fully funded by parents and private sources, failed and closed in 2024.
