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The weight of the Catholic Church in denominational education

In France, the Catholic Church runs 8,719 schools with a total of about two million pupils. In 2004-2005, 1,984,729 pupils (837,505 in primary schools, 1,096,650 in secondary schools and 50,574 in agricultural schools) were schooling in Catholic establishments in the mainland. As regards higher learning, 35,000 students attended universities and institutes run by the Catholic Church.

Extracted from the Agence France-Presse (AFP) released on 5 April 2005, statistics of the Catholic Church in France.

As for Protestantism, six Protestant institutions have a contract with the government: primary and secondary school "Lucie Berger" (850 pupils), secondary school and college "Jean Sturm" (1050 pupils) in Strasbourg; secondary school "Collège cévenol" in the Chambon-sur-Lignon (270 pupils), secondary school "Bernard Palissy" in Boissy Saint Léger (300 pupils), primary school "Marie Durand" in Nîmes (200 pupils) and Protestant primary school of Endoume in Marseille (90 pupils). Evangelical Protestantism gathers 800 pupils in 18 different private establishments.

Source: Réforme # 3256, 24-30 January 2008.

There are around 40 Muslim primary schools in France, most of which are private schools (without State support). They gather around 2,000 pupils. 80% of the pupils in Muslims schools belong to four educational regions: Versailles (1,443 pupils), Lyon (802), Lille (727), and Créteil (near Paris, 611).
Five establishments for secondary education have signed a contract with the State (Averroès College in Lille, Al-Kindi School and Secondary School in the suburbs of Lyon, Ibn Khaldun Secondary School in Marseille, Education et Savoir Secondary school and college in Vitry-sur-Seine). 4 other secondary schools have not obtained such a contract.
Altogether, some 4,000 to 5,000 children and young people are educated in Muslim institutions.

Source: Anne-Laure Zwilling, "France", in Oliver Scharbrodt, Samim Akgönül, Ahmet Alibašić, Jørgen S. Nielsen et Egdūnas Račius (dir.), Yearbook of Muslims in Europe volume 10. Leiden : Brill, 2018 forthcoming.

There are more than a hundred educational institutions of different sizes attached to Judaism, some of them are kindergartens. The most ancient and largest one (with 1,200 pupils) is Lucien-de-Hirsch, opened in 1901, in Paris. 76% of them have signed a contract with the State. They gather around 32,000 pupils.

Source: Annuaire de la communauté juive, 2018.

Private institutions of education which do not have a contract with the State, and are for the most part denominational, gathered 74 000 pupils in September 2017. This represents only a limited part of the 12 Million pupils of the country. It is, however, increasing steadily, both in the number of pupils and in the number of institutions : 150 new institutions have opened in 2017, against some 30 a year 5 years ago.

Source: Edouard Philippe, Plan national de prévention de la radicalisation, février 2018.

D 24 July 2018    AAnne-Laure Zwilling

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