Averroes Muslim High School in Lille, France, will no longer receive funding from the French government starting from the 2024 academic year onwards, following controversy over the ideas set forth in its pedagogy and curriculum, reported international media.
Averroes, a private school inaugurated in 2003, was the first Muslim high school to open its doors in mainland France. It serves over 800 students and has been under contract with the state since 2008.
This move came after an advisory commission chaired by Georges-François Leclerc, prefect of the Hauts-de-France region, voted on November 27 for the termination of the financing contract linking the high school branch of Averroès to the state since 2008.
Subsequently, the prefect approved the decision and made the termination of the school’s state contract official without providing prior formal notice to the school.
According to Le Parisien Daily, the commission found irregularities in the school’s management and teachings, including a lack of teaching on societal content such as LGBTQ topics and an “excessive” emphasis placed upon Islam in religion courses, to the detriment of other faiths.
The French regional prefecture also accused the school of receiving illicit financing and providing students with access to texts that favor the death penalty for apostasy or back gender segregation. However, the school’s lawyer, Joseph Breham, denied these claims, saying that none of the school’s administrators had ever been questioned by police, charged, or judged based on the claims.
Averroès school requires approximately 2 million euros each year to continue functioning, including about 1.7 million euros from the State, as 50-60% of its middle and high school students are scholarship holders from low-income families.