UTRECHT, 31/07/03 - Fourteen Protestant-Christian schools are not allowed to maintain a quota for the number of foreign pupils they admit. The Committee for Equal Treatment (CBG) yesterday revealed ruled the schools' policy is a violation of the law.

The Association for Christian National Education in Ede does not permit more than 15 percent of children per class that do not speak Dutch at home. If too many foreign pupils apply, they are referred to another of the association's fourteen schools. The National Bureau against Racial Discrimination (LBR) and the Anti Discrimination Bureau (ADB) had protested against this admittance policy.

The CGB ruled yesterday that there is no evidence that the schools' policy leads to a higher quality of education or better integration of the foreign pupils that are being admitted. The committee noted that its judgement does not necessarily say that any quota is illegal. Neither does the verdict apply one-to-one to other schools.

According to the CGB, the quota was used to reject pupils that speak another language and not per se children of another nationality, religion or race. Yet the committee is not surprised that the Bureau against Racial Discrimination brought the case. "The LBR often joins hands with the ADB," spokeswoman Barbara Bos explained.

Bos said she suspects there are more possibilities for Islamic schools to refuse unwanted pupils. "Muslims tend to attach more importance to their faith," she considered. The Protestant-Christian schools primarily put forward the quality of education and integration as arguments. "They failed to convince the CGB that the interests of their religious principles were at stake".

Bos could not say whether Islamic schools wishing to refuse Dutch children would be allowed to employ a quota. "Such a case has never yet been brought," she said.