Page 61 - EducationWorld March 2022

president of the Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes region, Laurent
Wauquiez, announced on December 20 that he had sus-
pended “all funding and all cooperation” with the univer-
sity over its “unacceptable ideological and communitarian
drift”.
Prof. Saurugger says the regional funding is worth about
€500,000 (Rs.5 crore) a year, covering activities such as
lifelong learning and exchange programmes. The funding
freeze was cheered by right-wing candidates in the upcom-
ing presidential poll, Marine Le Pen and Eric Zemmour,
with the latter saying it was the right response to the “infil-
tration of our grandes ecoles by Islamo-leftism”.
The freeze came after a year of accusations, including
from the French government, that the country’s universities
have created an intellectual breeding ground for terrorism Sabine Saurugger (left) & Klaus Kinzler: Islamophobia row
by viewing society critically through the lenses of ethnicity,
religion and gender — rather than the republican ideal of freedom,” says Simon Dawes, a media lecturer at Universite
equality. Scholars focusing on areas such as racism, Islamo- de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines.
phobia and French colonialism have come under intense Former students of Dr. Kinzler have published an open
attack since the beheading of Samuel Paty, a middle school letter in the Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper calling
teacher who showed his pupils a cartoon of the Prophet for his reinstatement, criticising student protesters and
Muhammad in October 2020. demanding Sciences Po Grenoble be reformed to better
“For an individual politician to cancel funding to a uni- protect political balance among staff and students.
versity based on the unfounded allegations of a disgruntled
employee is a significant and worrying development. It is (Excerpted and adapted from The Economist and Times
a political act and a violation of the principle of academic Higher Education)

AFFILIATED TO CBSE, NEW DELHI (NO.- 230176)

A DAY CUM BOARDING CBSE AFFILIATED SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL

Shiksha Valley School bags GRAND JURY INDIA SCHOOL
RANKING AWARD 2021-22 by Education World for BEST
DIGITAL LEARNING INFRASTRUCTURE holding 1st Rank in
India.

Shiksha Valley School bags INDIA SCHOOL RANKING AWARD
2021-22 by Education World .
1st Rank in Upper Assam
3rd Rank in Assam
27th Rank in India

School Campus:
Khanikar, P.O. : Sessa, Dist. Dibrugarh 786003 (Assam)
City Office : Central Chowkidinghee, Rodali Path, Dist. Dibrugarh 786001 (Assam)
Email: enquiry@shikshavalleyschool.org Website: www.shikshavalleyschool.org

MARCH 2022 EDUCATIONWORLD 61