Muslim Schools in France Call for Equal Treatment Amid Funding Disparities

While the National Federation of Muslim Private Education (FNEM) had only eleven private schools under contract with the State (primary and secondary levels) in which 1,886 students were enrolled in contracted classes, before the termination of the association contract with the Averroès high school (the main Muslim high school in France), 7,000 of the more than 7,500 private schools under contract at the start of the 2021 school year were part of the Catholic education network, reports La Croix. This observation leads the FNEM to plead for "equal treatment" with other networks. In a press release, the FNEM, created in 2014 to structure the network of Muslim schools, colleges and high schools, under the impetus of the former Union of Islamic Organizations of France (UOIF, now Musulmans de France), regrets a "reduced supply" of Muslim schools and "very limited" openings.

"While Islam is the second religion in France, the Muslim community remains largely underequipped with private schools," lamented the FNEM. According to the explanations of its president Makhlouf Mamèche, director of the Averroès association that manages the school group of the same name, "for five years, the openings of private Muslim schools have been very limited compared to other networks. Worse, the trend is towards administrative closures or the termination of association contracts, as was the case with the Averroès high school in Lille, which was nevertheless a symbol of excellence." He pointed out that the demand for Muslim schools has never been so strong and the supply has never been so reduced, which reflects "the problematic situation in which Muslim private education finds itself in France." Muslim private education must "take its rightful place in the French educational landscape," because "the principle of equal treatment requires it," the federation believes.