Lycée-Collège Averroès is a private Muslim junior and senior high school/high school and sixth-form college in Lille, France. It contracted with the state and receives government subsidies, doing so since 2008; it is the only Islamic secondary school in France to do so. The Lycée is located in adjacent to a mosque. History and mission Opened in 2003, it is the first Muslim secondary school established in France. The school originally had 11 students. The school was named after a 12th-century Andalusian-Arabian philosopher Ibn Rushd (also known as Averroes 1126-1198). The school's origins date back to 1994 when the Al-Imane Mosque began teaching 19 Muslim girls who were expelled from their public school for refusing to remove their headscarves. The school was officially established in 2003. It now has several hundred students and has been ranked as one of the top schools in the country. The school aims to provide Muslim students with an alternative to the French public school education in the same way that French Catholics, Protestants and Jews do. In 2008, the school was granted the status of "sous contrat" meaning the French government pays teacher salaries and the school is required to follow the national curriculum. It began receiving government subsidies in 2008. it had 340 students; the majority are low income and/or are of immigrant ancestry. Tuition differs depending on how much money a student's parents make, but it is about £1,000 British pounds annually. By 2013 the school had a 100% pass rate in the French Baccalaureate. David Chazan of The Times wrote that this caused "soul-searching" in a country which emphasizes secular education. Leadership The first headmistress of the school was Sylvie Taleb who later resigned in 2006. The school's current director is El Hassan Oufker. Its deputy director is Makhlouf Mameche, who also serves as the vice president of the Union of Islamic Organisations of France (UOIF), which has been criticized for its connections to the Muslim Brotherhood. The president of the association that manages Averroes High School, Amar Lasfar is also the president of the Union of Islamic Organizations of France and the rector of the Lille-Sud mosque. Funding Before being granted the "sous contrat" status, the school relied on donations from the Muslim community of Nord-Pas-de-Calais. The school relies upon large donations to expand its capabilities. While students do pay a small fee to attend the school, this is not