Closure of Muslim college in Nice overturned by court
On Tuesday, July 2, the administrative court of Nice annulled the prefectural order to close the Avicenne Muslim college, considering that the errors noted in the establishment’s accounting did not justify such a definitive measure.
“Avicenna emerges stronger from this ordeal”rejoiced the college’s lawyer, Me Sefen Guez Guez, announcing his intention to return to court to denounce this time the refusal of the establishment’s requests to switch to a contract with the State.
College to increase enrollment
“The prefecture takes note of the decision of the administrative court, while considering that the opacity of the establishment’s accounts, recognized and admitted by the court, poses real problems with regard to the law on separatism”the prefecture responded in a short press release.
Located in a disadvantaged area of Nice, with saturated public secondary schools, this private secondary school opened in 2016 and has around a hundred students. The controversy having boosted applications, it will increase to 130 next year with the opening of a second 6th grade class.
The authorities do not question the quality of the education provided, confirmed by the success of students in the brevet, then in public high schools.
Obscure funding
The 2021 law against separatism requires non-contract establishments to inform the administration of the origin of their funding, and the Avicenne association, an offshoot of the Union of Muslims of the Alpes-Maritimes (Umam) and manager of the college, has struggled to respond to requests.
The tables were not in the required form for a long time, and the last ones only mentioned the surnames of the contributors, whether they were parents of students or donors. The former paying €200 per month and per student, the association depends heavily on the latter to balance its budget.
“If the tables and documents provided by the Avicenne association for the years 2018 to 2022 contain errors and inaccuracies, these irregularities noted do not constitute shortcomings (…) of a nature to justify the definitive closure of the establishment”concluded the administrative court in its judgment on the merits.
The decision to close Avicenne was announced on February 26 by the Minister of National Education Nicole Belloubet and ordered on March 14 by the Prefect Hugues Moutouh.
