Nice: The court annuls the order to close the Avicenne Muslim college

The administrative court of Nice on Tuesday annulled the prefectural order to close the Avicenne Muslim college, considering, as during the suspension in April, that the errors noted in the establishment’s accounts did not justify such a definitive measure.

“Avicenne has emerged stronger from this ordeal,” rejoiced the college’s lawyer, Me Sefen Guez Guez, announcing his intention to return to court to denounce this time the refusal of the establishment’s requests to switch to a contract with the State.

“The prefecture acknowledges 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.

Publicity shot

Located in a disadvantaged area of ​​Nice, with saturated public secondary schools, this private secondary school opened in 2016 and has around 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 education provided, confirmed by the success of 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 (Umam) and manager of the college, has fumbled to respond to requests.

Incomplete documents

The tables were not in the required form for a long time, and the last ones only mentioned the surnames of the contributors, whether they were parents of students or donors. The former paying 200 euros per month and per student, the association depends heavily on the latter to balance its budget. “If the tables and documents provided by the Avicenne association for the years 2018 to 2022 contain errors and inaccuracies, these irregularities noted do not constitute shortcomings (…) of a nature to justify the definitive closure of the establishment”, concluded the administrative court in its judgment on the merits.

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.