Latest news with #Averroes
Arab News
23-04-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
Court overturns French decision to cut funding to biggest Muslim school
PARIS: An administrative court on Wednesday overturned France's decision to cut government funding to the country's biggest Muslim high school in 2023, in what rights groups say is part of a wider crackdown on Muslim schools. Private school Averroes, the first Muslim high school to open in mainland France in 2003 in the northern city of Lille, had 800 pupils in 2023 and had been under contract with the state since 2008. Pupils follow the regular French curriculum, and are also offered religion classes. At the end of 2023, the government's local representative known as the 'prefecture' said the school had administrative and financial problems and some teaching did not align with French republican values, therefore public funding was to be cut. In its Wednesday ruling, the Lille administrative court said the prefecture didn't provide sufficient evidence that the school was failing to comply with French republican values. Other failings for which the prefecture did have evidence, such as refusing a surprise inspection, did not give sufficient grounds to justify ending its contract with the school. 'It's a victory for the rule of law,' the high school said in a statement on Wednesday. 'Averroes is a high school aiming for excellence and will now be able to continue its work with its pupils serenely.' As a result of the ruling, the high school's contract with the state will be automatically reinstated, Paul Jablonski, a lawyer for Averroes, told Reuters. He added he hoped the prefecture would not appeal the ruling. The Lille prefecture didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Court overturns French decision to cut funding to biggest Muslim school
By Juliette Jabkhiro Paris (Reuters) - An administrative court on Wednesday overturned France's decision to cut government funding to the country's biggest Muslim high school in 2023, in what rights groups say is part of a wider crackdown on Muslim schools. Private school Averroes, the first Muslim high school to open in mainland France in 2003 in the northern city of Lille, had 800 pupils in 2023 and had been under contract with the state since 2008. Pupils follow the regular French curriculum, and are also offered religion classes. At the end of 2023, the government's local representative known as the 'prefecture' said the school had administrative and financial problems and some teaching did not align with French republican values, therefore public funding was to be cut. In its Wednesday ruling, the Lille administrative court said the prefecture didn't provide sufficient evidence that the school was failing to comply with French republican values. Other failings for which the prefecture did have evidence, such as refusing a surprise inspection, did not give sufficient grounds to justify ending its contract with the school. "It's a victory for the rule of law," the high school said in a statement on Wednesday. "Averroes is a high school aiming for excellence and will now be able to continue its work with its pupils serenely." As a result of the ruling, the high school's contract with the state will be automatically reinstated, Paul Jablonski, a lawyer for Averroes, told Reuters. He added he hoped the prefecture would not appeal the ruling. The Lille prefecture didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Straits Times
23-04-2025
- Politics
- Straits Times
Court overturns French decision to cut funding to biggest Muslim school
FILE PHOTO: Middle school students, some wearing a hijab, listen to teacher Ilyas Laarej during an Islamic ethics class at the Averroes school, France's biggest Muslim educational institution that has lost its state funding on grounds of administrative failures and questionable teaching practises, in Lille, France, March 19, 2024. REUTERS/Ardee Napolitano/File Photo Paris - An administrative court on Wednesday overturned France's decision to cut government funding to the country's biggest Muslim high school in 2023, in what rights groups say is part of a wider crackdown on Muslim schools. Private school Averroes, the first Muslim high school to open in mainland France in 2003 in the northern city of Lille, had 800 pupils in 2023 and had been under contract with the state since 2008. Pupils follow the regular French curriculum, and are also offered religion classes. At the end of 2023, the government's local representative known as the 'prefecture' said the school had administrative and financial problems and some teaching did not align with French republican values, therefore public funding was to be cut. In its Wednesday ruling, the Lille administrative court said the prefecture didn't provide sufficient evidence that the school was failing to comply with French republican values. Other failings for which the prefecture did have evidence, such as refusing a surprise inspection, did not give sufficient grounds to justify ending its contract with the school. "It's a victory for the rule of law," the high school said in a statement on Wednesday. "Averroes is a high school aiming for excellence and will now be able to continue its work with its pupils serenely." As a result of the ruling, the high school's contract with the state will be automatically reinstated, Paul Jablonski, a lawyer for Averroes, told Reuters. He added he hoped the prefecture would not appeal the ruling. The Lille prefecture didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Reuters
23-04-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
Court overturns French decision to cut funding to biggest Muslim school
Paris, April 23 (Reuters) - An administrative court on Wednesday overturned France's decision to cut government funding to the country's biggest Muslim high school in 2023, in what rights groups say is part of a wider crackdown on Muslim schools. Private school Averroes, the first Muslim high school to open in mainland France in 2003 in the northern city of Lille, had 800 pupils in 2023 and had been under contract with the state since 2008. Pupils follow the regular French curriculum, and are also offered religion classes. At the end of 2023, the government's local representative known as the 'prefecture' said the school had administrative and financial problems and some teaching did not align with French republican values, therefore public funding was to be cut. In its Wednesday ruling, the Lille administrative court said the prefecture didn't provide sufficient evidence that the school was failing to comply with French republican values. Other failings for which the prefecture did have evidence, such as refusing a surprise inspection, did not give sufficient grounds to justify ending its contract with the school. "It's a victory for the rule of law," the high school said in a statement on Wednesday. "Averroes is a high school aiming for excellence and will now be able to continue its work with its pupils serenely." As a result of the ruling, the high school's contract with the state will be automatically reinstated, Paul Jablonski, a lawyer for Averroes, told Reuters. He added he hoped the prefecture would not appeal the ruling. The Lille prefecture didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Local France
23-04-2025
- Politics
- Local France
French Muslim school re-allocated suspended state funding
Private schools can receive state subsidies in France under a contract with the government, so long as they are open to all students, and follow the state's education guidelines. The Averroes school, founded two decades ago in the northern city of Lille in the wake of a ban on the Muslim headscarf in schools, regularly scores highly in academic standards. But regional state authorities in November 2023 said they suspected the Averroes school had received illicit financing, and noted a book referring to the death penalty for apostasy and gender segregation listed in a bibiography for teachers giving a Muslim ethics class. Georges-Francois Leclerc, the prefect who suspended the funding in December 2023, told a parliamentary inquiry this month that he believed students were "in danger", and accused some teachers of having ties to Islamism. READ MORE: How do private schools work in France? The administrative court in the northern city of Lille on Wednesday however found that there had been insufficient proof of any "serious breaches" in education guidelines and that the procedure followed to cut funding had been "tainted with irregularities". It said authorities had not managed to demonstrate any "lack of cultural pluralism" in reading materials, any breach of guidelines in Muslim ethics classes, or any "illegal funding". The Averroes association that runs the school welcomed the verdict, saying it could now go back to "calmly continuing its work with pupils". Advertisement National school inspectors had said in a 2020 report that they found nothing at odds with national education guidelines. The high school says it has seen its pupils drop from 470 to 290 since the funding cuts. Without the extra funding, it says it was forced to double its fees and launch an online crowdfunding campaign to be able to cover its overheads for the academic year that started in September. Under France's secular system, teachers and pupils have not been allowed to wear any obvious religious symbols, including the Muslim headscarf or hijab, in public schools since 2004. The Averroes high school is a rare private school where the hijab is allowed. France's authorities are eager to prevent any spread of extremist Islamist ideas in a country that has been rocked by a string of deadly jihadist attacks.
