Paris, France, 6 December 2016 – On his official visit to France, the President of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) Group, H.E. Dr. Bandar Hajjar, visited several French Muslim community schools launched through contributions made by IsDB.

The visit started with a tour of the Malik Ibn Anas Primary School in Paris, which serves 250 students. The school also provides supplementary and extra-curricular educational services to 450 students who do not attend regular classes there.

Dr. Hajjar also visited the campus at Ibn Rushd Secondary School, which was launched in 2006 with funding from IsDB. The co-ed school that is mainly run on state funding has nearly 550 students and offers French Government Curricula. It offers quality advanced-level education and has won several important awards, including the 2013 Award for Best School in the Republic of France.

Statistics show that the Muslim population in France stands at six million, while the number of Muslim schools in the country is not more than 30. According to French law, the Muslim community has the right to launch its own special schools offering the Government curricula and with state funds covering 80 per cent of the school’s costs.

IsDB began offering support to the Muslim community in France in 1998. Since then, the Bank has provided financial contributions of US $3 million to launch eight schools in Lille, Lyon, Marseille and Paris.

IsDB’s education development efforts in France also include scholarship grants for PhD courses in advanced technology and post-doctoral research aimed at capacity building in highly specialized areas in member countries.

Universities in France have so far hosted 84 male and female students from 19 IsDB member countries on scholarships in advanced majors, 44 of whom have graduated and are serving their respective nations in various advanced fields of science.