On the eve of the start of the school year and in the midst of a debate on the ban on abayas and qamis, the LR presidents of the Departmental Councils of the Alpes-Maritimes and Bouches-du-Rhône have offered to experiment with the uniform in college, following suit. of Republican boss Eric Ciotti.
“We wish to launch an experiment in this direction, in the colleges of the Alpes-Maritimes, in agreement with the president of the departmental council”, thus launched in the Journal du Dimanche Eric Ciotti, deputy of the Alpes-Maritimes, affirming to have “mentioned this candidacy with Gabriel Attal”, the new Minister of National Education.
A proposal that Charles-Ange Ginésy, at the head of this department in the south-east of France, supports “totally”. “Such a measure would make it possible to fight against inequalities and harassment and would help to affirm the specificity of the school environment,” he said on X, formerly Twitter.
Gabriel Attal, who announced for this new school year the ban on the abaya, a long traditional covering dress worn by certain Muslim students and considered by the government as an ostentatious religious sign contrary to the law, said at the end of July in favor of the experimentation of the uniform “if the educational community of an establishment” requests it.
Eric Ciotti also tried in the JDD to relaunch a recurring proposal from his political family by pleading for the prohibition of the “wearing of religious symbols for parents of accompanying students during school outings”.
In the Bouches-du-Rhône, another LR, Martine Vassal, said on Sunday for the opening of “a major consultation with national education and the parents of students in order to experiment with wearing the uniform in the colleges of our department,” she said on X.
For her the uniform, “widely distributed in certain countries and territories of our Republic”, “erases social differences and allows better integration”. It also makes it possible to “reinforce the safety of the pupils by facilitating their identification”.
To date, the school uniform, if it is worn in many countries, is worn in metropolitan France only in rare establishments such as in military high schools or in the education houses of the Legion of Honor, reserved for daughters, granddaughters and great-granddaughters of recipients of the Legion of Honor. They wear a navy blue pinafore dress and a white blouse.
Several private establishments also impose it, or a fairly strict dress code.
Overseas, wearing a uniform is much more widespread, particularly in Martinique and Guadeloupe as well as in Guyana or New Caledonia, including in public establishments. A third of public establishments in Martinique require it, for example.
These right-wing elected officials thus join the request of the mayor of the National Rally of Perpignan Louis Aliot, who proposed Thursday the establishment of a uniform outfit in the schools of his city. In early August, the mayor of Béziers (Hérault) Robert Ménard, a former close friend of Marine Le Pen and Eric Zemmour, also expressed his wish to experiment with the measure in his town.
Asked about the subject on Sunday, the president of the MoDem, François Bayrou, wanted to be more cautious: “We can consider the question of the uniform, but it has to come from the establishments themselves”, he said. declared on Europe 1 and CNEWS.
“The idea that everything must be generalized is an idea that must be taken with precaution, with reserve”, he added, also cautious about reserving uniform dress for establishments in priority neighborhoods, an idea mentioned by the Secretary of State for the City, Sabrina Agresti-Roubache, former MP from Marseille.
“There is no reason to add to this question, which is a culturally difficult question, a segregation by the results or by the socio-cultural environment in which we live”, still judged Mr. Bayrou.
03/09/2023 17:15:46 – Marseille (AFP) © 2023 AFP
