E/CN.4/2003/66/Add.1 page 18 intervening in any way, while at the same time some imams are said to have no latitude at all as regards the contents of their sermons, or even to be sent the texts of their Friday sermons by the Ministry of Religious Affairs. 92. The Special Rapporteur was given no information about religious observance on private premises. The Ministry of Religious Affairs said that it was still exceptional for mosques to overflow onto the streets. 93. Religious education, according to the Ministry of Religious Affairs, can be summarized as follows: − 251 zaouïas (elementary schools attached to a Muslim shrine) together accommodating 11,490 pupils under the instruction of 305 teachers; − 2,261 Koranic schools together accommodating 185,567 pupils under the instruction of 4,128 teachers; − 3,344 koutabs (basic Koranic schools) together accommodating 85,488 pupils under the instruction of 2,553 teachers. 94. All these institutions come under the authority of the Ministry of Religious Affairs and are situated close to mosques; they serve as kindergartens or primary schools and adult literacy centres, but they also cater for children who have dropped out of the schools run by the Ministry of National Education. 2. Religious minorities 95. According to the Ministry of Religious Affairs there are 20 churches in operation in Algeria today, whereas there are thought to have been 500 before independence, plus 150 places of prayer. The Ministry of Justice says that priests, like imams, are paid a salary, and this is also true of the 17 chaplains who visit prisons. The Algerian State also allows masses celebrated at the religious festivals of Easter, Christmas and Whitsun to be televised. 96. In order to operate, Protestant churches are registered with the Ministry of the Interior as cultural associations and are thus subject to the law that governs associations generally, whatever their nature. 97. Following independence, the archdiocese is said to have ceded most churches to the State without requesting any compensation. The churches were turned into mosques, libraries or meeting halls. The Catholic Church, however, is said to have taken steps to prevent its assets from being categorized as endowments as a 1964 decree would have required. 98. Until 1990 the church was unable to dispose freely of its assets because of a 1976 decree which required prior authorization for any sale of church property, and in practice that authorization, which accorded a first right of refusal to the State, was never granted. Since the passage of a law in 1990 the Catholic Church alone has been able to get around the ban, because some of its members hold Algerian nationality.