• Before the holidays, some schools received a "request from the intelligence services" to raise "the percentage of absenteeism during the Eid festival".
  • The Rectorate claims not to be associated with this approach.
  • The SUD union denounces a serious drift and stigmatization.

The information is made public in the middle of the Ascension Bridge. Police officers asked school principals in Toulouse to tell them how many students were absent on Eid al-Fitr. A request that has aroused the indignation of the educational community, we learned Friday from concordant sources.

Before the holidays, some schools (schools, colleges and high schools) received an email from the "Toulouse-Rive Gauche" School Police Security Correspondents (Toulouse-Rive Gauche). It announced a "request from the intelligence services" to raise "the percentage of absenteeism [...] on the Eid holiday," the SUD Education 31-65 union said in a statement sent on May 16.

The rectorate claims not to be "associated"

This request was made without the approval of the rectorate of Toulouse: "In no case do we conduct investigations of this kind," said Mostafa Fourar, rector of the academy. "If someone has taken this initiative, the National Education is absolutely not involved," he added. Eid al-Fitr, a holiday marking the end of Ramadan for Muslims, took place this year on April 21, the eve of the school holidays in the Toulouse academy.

"As soon as school heads and principals informed us of this request, instructions were obviously given not to respond," said Fourar. "We see this as a serious drift, a stigmatization of Muslim students and an attack on their freedom of conscience. Of course, we cannot protest against the fact that this is not requested for a Christian holiday because all Christian holidays are holidays! We recall that freedom of conscience is a fundamental freedom in the legal sense of the term, guaranteed by many founding texts", develops the union SUD Education 31-65.

According to a source close to the case, "it is a clumsiness". "The territorial intelligence services went through police officers referents of the National Education, their message was poorly formulated, but asking for an absenteeism rate is not carding or personal data," said this source.

"An attack on secularism"

This work of territorial intelligence is part of a context of "renewed attacks on secularism in schools" during the period of Ramadan, according to the same source, with, for example, "challenges for social networks to film oneself with a veil" or refusals to participate in singing and music lessons.

Students are subject to the obligation of attendance, but authorizations of absence may be issued to families who request it for a religious festival. "In case of absence of their child, parents must immediately inform the director of the school of the reasons for their absence, but it is not up to the services to ask if they will be absent, in accordance with respect for the confidentiality of beliefs," according to the Ministry of National Education.

"We do not understand how we could have this initiative, without it being discussed anywhere. This raises questions because obviously the services of the State have not spoken to the National Education, "said Pierre Priouret, secretary general of Snes-FSU Toulouse. "SUD-Education 31-65 will call on the Police Security School correspondents, the prefecture and the rectorate to ask for explanations about this procedure and to demand the official withdrawal of this injunction which is akin to denunciation," added the union.

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