Muslim Schools Face Scrutiny as Catholic Institutions Evade Oversight

Why does the State concentrate its checks only on Muslim establishments? This is the question asked by left-wing MP Paul Vanier, co-author of a parliamentary report on public funding of private contracted education in 2024. The document noted a lack of transparency and control over the public funding of these establishments, which are mainly Catholic. Speaking this week before the parliamentary inquiry commission on school violence in France, the MP reiterated his concern about the distinctive treatment reserved for private establishments, according to their faiths.

Paul Vanier revealed that the General Secretariat of Catholic Education, which brings together establishments of this faith, has always refused to submit to state control. "There is extremely strong resistance," he confirms, specifying that only 7 out of 7,500 Catholic contracted establishments have been checked in the last six years. At the same time, the Muslim high school Averroès in Lille has been checked 14 times by the General Inspectorate of National Education, the Academic Inspectorate, the prefecture, the regional chamber of accounts, etc.

This example shows that "when we want to check an establishment, we can do it and we can deploy considerable means to achieve it and carry out checks in all directions," observes the MP, before nuancing: "when we concentrate all the means of control always in the same place, always in Muslim private establishments, they are not available elsewhere, they are not available in Bétharram and Stanislas," two Catholic colleges tainted by scandals of sexual assaults and mistreatment of students.

The left-wing elected official returned to the case of the Averroès high school, which has not been under a public funding contract since 2023. Even though the courts overturned the decision last April, the Muslim establishment is awaiting the outcome of the appeal. "The case of the Averroès high school is too emblematic [...] We cannot push the control further as was the case in Averroès," denounces Paul Vanier, who does not understand why Muslim establishments "are riddled with checks," while they are in the minority in France (barely a dozen). This is "something intolerable, an unacceptable double standard in the Republic," he says.

https://x.com/PaulVannierFI/status/1971854826096271425