These environments are thoroughly, though not exclusively, Islamic - schools where beautiful drawings of mosques decorate doorways, children's painted lanterns hang from ceilings, and delicate calligraphy decorates class walls next to projects on amoeba or the solar system. Girls wear the Islamic head scarf, the hijab, and pinafores or trousers, or sometimes both. Boys are in white shirts and dark trousers. Their teachers are addressed as brother or sister. The Ontario Ministry of Education reported 2,240 children in Islamic schools in 1999, but estimates from the Muslim community suggest greater numbers, as many as 4,000.
New schools open every year.
A high school is under construction in Mississauga on the property of the Islamic Centre of Canada at South Sheridan Way. The Taric Islamic Centre has applied to lease an unused public school in North York and hopes to open for grades 1 to 4 in September. At the Islamic Foundation School in Scarborough, babies are registered for junior kindergarten within a few days of birth. The school opened with 38 children in 1993 and is at capacity with 300 students from grades 1 to 8. There's a waiting list of 650 for the next three years.