Segregació escolar a Amsterdam

Camina l'Europa occidental, a inicis del segle XXI, cap a un règim de segregació racial similar al que hi havia al sud dels Estats Units els anys 60 o a la Sudàfrica de l'apartheid dels anys 70 i 80? Aquesta pregunta, que es formula The Brussels Journal, respon a que una escola d'Amsterdam ha fet dues portes d'entrada separades, una pels alumnes blancs holandesos i, una altra, per als immigrants o fills d'immigrants. A la porta de cada entrada hi figura un nom diferent, com si no fóssin la mateixa escola. Una, la dels blancs, és la 8th Montessori i, l'altra, és la Rietlanden. Això, sí, els seus administradors asseguren que no té res a veure amb el racisme!

The school authorities claim that this situation has nothing to do with racism because the school welcomes children from all ethnic groups. All it wants is for them to enter through different doors. The school constitutes a complex with two sections. One, the coloured section, is called “Rietlanden,” the other, the white section, “8th Montessori.”

“For one reason or another our school had acquired a bad reputation,” headmistress Annemieke van der Groen says. “In such a case you can invest in quality as much as you like, but it is difficult to convince white parents to enroll their children here. If they come to have a look, they say ‘You know, with all these black children’ and enroll their children elsewhere.” Hence, the two entrances and different names for the same school.

Local councillors Fatima Elatik and Ahmed Aboutaleb are not happy with the situation. They are in favour of mixed schools and suggest enforcing this by forbidding white parents from enrolling their child in a school unless they bring along a non-white couple with a child to enroll as well. Deputy headmistress Nelly Bruin of the Rietlanden school opposes such a measure: “What you will see then is that highly educated parents will bring along educated immigrants. You will end up with schools for uneducated immigrants and white trash. That is not what you would want either.”