Court cancels closure of private Muslim college in Nice

“Avicenne has emerged stronger from this ordeal,” rejoiced the college’s lawyer, who intends to return soon to the administrative court to contest the refusal of the establishment’s requests to switch to a contract with the State.

The Muslim college in Nice will be able to welcome its students next year, the administrative court of Nice having confirmed, on Tuesday July 2, that the accounting errors attributed to the establishment did not justify a prefectural closure order.

“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.

“Avicenna emerges stronger from this ordeal”rejoiced the college’s lawyer, Sefen Guez Guez, who intends to return soon before the administrative court to contest the refusal of the establishment’s requests to switch to a contract with the State.

Located in a disadvantaged area of ​​Nice, this private, non-contractual college opened in 2016 and has about 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 teaching provided, confirmed by the success of the students in the brevet and then in public high schools.

But 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 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. With families paying 200 euros per month per student, the association relies heavily on donations to balance its budget.

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. Avicenne officials then denounced a “relentlessness”.

At the beginning of June, the college director, Idir Arab, had also mentioned “a feeling of injustice” : “You have a small project that works in a neighborhood where everything is collapsing, why close it down?” Especially since the college has been asking since 2019 to enter into a contract with the French state, which implies even more extensive control by public authorities.

At Avicenna, students follow the official curriculum, with an additional 1.5 hours of Arabic and 1.5 hours of Muslim ethics. The dress codes are very diverse and the teachers are of all faiths.