The Minister of National Education, Pap Ndiaye, reacted on Friday, June 16, to the message of Christian Estrosi, the mayor of Nice, who had denounced the day before “Muslim prayers” and “a minute of silence for Muhammad” which was took place in the courtyards of three schools in his town.

The Minister of National Education deplored “intolerable facts” and assured that he had “immediately mobilized the ‘values ??teams of the Republic'”. In a joint statement with Mr. Estrosi, he reports that a high school and a college in the Alpes-Maritimes are also affected by “very serious attacks on the principle of secularism”.

The mayor of Nice had communicated Thursday, explaining that the academic inspector of his city had informed him the day before of “several extremely serious facts which occurred in various establishments” schools in Nice. In a letter addressed to the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, which he posted on Twitter, he mentions “children in CM1 and CM2 who said the Muslim prayer in the courtyard of their establishment or organized a minute of silence in the memory of the Prophet Muhammad in their school”.

“No connection established between the cases”

The rector of the Nice Academy confirmed to Nice-Matin that five establishments are concerned, “in particular three elementary schools in Nice”. “It’s a first in the academy to have elementary schools”, especially since it concerns “the most serious facts, in particular because of the age of the children”, comments Natacha Chicot.

The rector detailed the facts to the regional newspaper. She evokes a “call for a minute of silence in memory of the prophet at the meridian break”, launched by a pupil of CM1-CM2 in a school in Nice on June 8. “A report for radicalization has been made,” writes Nice-Matin.

The newspaper mentions two other facts reported in two separate schools: prayers, always at lunchtime, performed by a group of ten children in one case, three in the other. The facts took place on May 16 and June 5. “There is no established connection between the cases,” said Ms. Chicot, who says she informed Mr. Estrosi “because the facts were serious enough and the reports were made by municipal staff.”

The “parents have been summoned and, to my knowledge, have understood that we do not have the right to pray in a school”, declared Pap Ndiaye on Friday evening on the antenna of BFM-TV. He assured that it is with “firmness, discernment and pedagogy that we will move forward and progress to significantly reduce (…) the facts of attacks on secularism”.

In his letter to Elisabeth Borne, Christian Estrosi denounced “attempts to intrude religion into the sanctuaries of the Republic that are our schools”. “Our response must be firm, collective and resolute,” he added. In a separate press release, the mayor of Nice said he had asked “the head of government to launch a major awareness campaign on the phenomenon of radicalization in schools, to better protect children and train our staff”.

“At the national level, additional measures will be concerted with associations of local elected officials from the next instance of dialogue with local authorities to be held on July 3,” promised Mr. Ndiaye.