After two days of controversy, the Ministry of the Interior recognizes that an assessment of the absenteeism rate may have been requested in certain academies on the occasion of the Muslim holiday, at the end of April.
“Contrary to what has been said in recent days, the Ministry of the Interior and Overseas Obviously does not practice any registration of students according to their confession.“, declares this Sunday the Ministry of the Interior, via a press release from the State Secretariat for Citizenship, Sonia Backès, about the controversy over the census in Toulouse, by police officers, students absent on the day of the ‘Eid.
In question: police officers asked the heads of Toulouse schools to tell them the number of students absent on the day of Eid al-Fitr, the day marking the end of Ramadan, a request which aroused the indignation of the educational community. This request was made by email, without the approval of the rectorate of Toulouse.
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“An evaluation of the absenteeism rate”
“No personal data has been requested or recorded at any time“, continues the State Secretariat for Citizenship in its press release, confirming however that “the Ministry of the Interior and Overseas regularly studies the impact of certain religious holidays on the functioning of public services, and in particular within the school sphere“.”It is in this context that an assessment of the rate of absenteeism observed on the occasion of the Aid-el-Fitr holiday, on April 21, was requested, in certain academies, from the heads of establishment“, he finishes.
A “particularly shocking” request
For its part, the rectorate of Toulouse had also stepped up to the plate in recent days and had indicated that the initiative was made without its approval. “Under no circumstances do we carry out surveys of this kind“, had declared Mostafa Fourar, rector of the academy of Toulouse, specifying that”National Education is absolutely not associated with it“.
For SOS Racisme, the request of the police “is particularly shocking“: “For which other religious holidays does the Ministry of the Interior request an assessment of the absenteeism rate?“, asks the association.
The Sud Education union denounces, for its part, “Islamophobic excesses” in the administration. Finally, the Union of French Mosques is asking for a “due investigation”.