The private Muslim high school Averroès in Lille could lose its contract with the State

2023-11-24 21:26:04
Eric Dufour, the principal of Averroès high school, in Lille, in May 2023. PASCAL BONNIERE / MAXPPP

It is one of only two private Muslim high schools under contract in France. Based in Lille, the Averroès establishment, which has a baccalaureate success rate of 98% in the general sector, could however soon lose its association contract with the State. A precious key which allows the payment of teachers’ salaries by the Ministry of National Education, and ensures compliance with the official program by the high school.

Monday November 27 is due to meet in Lille, at the initiative of the prefect of the North, the academic advisory commission which will have to give an opinion on the maintenance or not of the association contract of the establishment, which has long been presented as a model . Because the prefect Georges-François Leclerc is convinced: the Averroès high school no longer meets the conditions for maintaining this agreement with the State, of which he requests the pure and simple withdrawal.

Moreover, it is a real indictment against the establishment, accused of contravening the values ​​of the Republic, that the senior official engages in the report referring the matter to the commission. In this 12-page text, dated October 27 and which The world was able to consult, Georges-François Leclerc denounces “administrative dysfunctions”of the “funding that raises questions”or “a worrying educational community”.

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In 2020, a report from the general inspection of education, sport and research, carried out at the request of the Hauts-de-France region, did not, for its part, find any trace of breaches under the terms of the contract, both educationally and financially.

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For the president of the Averroès association, Makhlouf Mameche, the prefecture’s accusations are “unfounded”. He plans to respond point by point in a 58-page text written with the help of his lawyer, Joseph Breham. “We will provide all the answers necessary to show that we respect the values ​​of the Republic”thus affirms Mr. Mameche, who says he is surprised to have discovered the letter summoning the commission in the press, before “receive three days later by mail”.

In the prefect’s sights, there are first of all the establishment’s foreign sources of funding. In his report, the prefect recalls, as written in the book Qatar Papers (Michel Lafon), by journalists Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot, published in 2019, which Averroès received from the country, via the non-governmental organization Qatar Charity, a grant which amounts to 925,000 euros. According to the establishment, this would be 850 000 euros, to which would be added 350,000 euros from the Arab League Development Bank.

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