The uniform is going back to school. The Minister of National Education, Gabriel Attal, must specify in the autumn the methods of the experiment which must evaluate the effects of the return of the single outfit. Cities are already volunteers.
Will the uniform be back in schools? Most likely in some. The Minister of National Education declared September 4, 2023, back-to-school day, on RTL, wanting to “launch experiments fairly quickly” on the wearing of the uniform. Gabriel Attal made an appointment in the fall to specify “the methods of experimentation”, he who wishes to test the return of the single outfit with a “real evaluation methodology” to see the effects of the measure.
The question of the school uniform is back on the front of the stage after a week of debate on the ban on wearing the abaya and the qamis at school. While the right half of the political spectrum believes that the return of the uniform is the best answer, the minister is not of this opinion. “I’m not sure it’s a miracle solution that will solve all the problems,” he said, reaffirming his position on the subject. Still, the minister is ready to give it a shot, as he indicated at the end of July in a river interview granted to Free lunch : “Experimentation is always useful to advance the debate, one way or the other”. Too early therefore to advance on the possible definitive return of the uniform to school, the answer to this question will be conditioned on the results of the experiment, which must be evaluated according to what it “allows in terms of transmission , raising standards in schools and restoring authority in our schools”.
Where could wearing a school uniform be experienced?
No sooner had Gabriel Attal mentioned the idea of evaluating the effects of the return of uniforms to schools than the volunteers to participate in the experiment made themselves known. At the end of July, it was the mayor of Béziers, Robert Ménard, who declared on France Blue, August 7, “raise your hand” to take part in the trial. If the city councilor close to the far right is in favor of the return of the uniform, he says he is not “naive enough to think that the uniform or the blouse at school will solve everything”. Such a measure could, however, “partially settle a number of questions”, in particular avoid the “fashion race”, erase social differences, calm “ambient narcissism” and “fight against school harassment”, according to the mayor of Béziers .
Another volunteer in the list: the mayor of Perpignan Louis Aliot (RN) or the president of the Alpes-Maritimes, Eric Ciotti (LR), and his counterpart in the Bouches-du-Rhône, Martine Vassal (LR). The latter suggests organizing a “large consultation with the National Education and the parents of students in order to experiment with the wearing of the uniform in the colleges” of her department. The boss of the Republicans is campaigning for his part for a general wearing of uniforms. Gabriel Attal hears these proposals without responding to them.
These schools which already impose the uniform
Rare are the schools that impose the uniform these days. Among them, we find in particular the defense high schools, former military high schools, i.e. six establishments, according to TF1 News : the National Military Prytanée at La Flèche, the military high schools of Aix, Autun and Saint-Cyr, the naval high school of Brest and the School of Air and Space Pupils of Montbonnot-Saint- Martin. The education centers of the Legion of Honor, establishments reserved only for descendants of those decorated with the Legion of Honor, also impose the uniform on their students, as does the boarding school of Excellence in Sourdun, in Seine-et -Marne (since March 2012).
If in mainland France the wearing of a school uniform is therefore rather rare, overseas, it is much more widespread. Note that it is sometimes more of an imposed outfit than a real uniform in Martinique, Guyana or Guadeloupe. For example, a t-shirt of a certain color may be requested. As reported by the regional daily The union, in January 2023, a third of public establishments imposed it in Martinique. According to The 1st, in New Caledonia, since 2017, the wearing of uniforms has been generalized in schools in the southern province. On the side of Polynesia, seven colleges in Tahiti have made it compulsory.
School uniform: what does the law say?
The return of school uniforms is a recurring debate in France. However, this has never been made compulsory for all public education in metropolitan France, recalls TF1 News. If many children have, of course, put on the blouse during their school years, the goal was above all to limit the ink stains on the clothes. An outfit that has gradually become obsolete with the advent of the ballpoint pen, relates the historian Claude Lelièvre, in his book The school of today in the light of history.
The uniforms as such were put in place more in the private sector or in public establishments claiming to be more selective. In secondary education, on the other hand, the uniform was imposed by Napoleon at the time of the creation of high schools, in 1802. An obligation lifted in 1914, but certain establishments let the tradition continue until, for the most resistant, 1968. It is finally the student crisis which would have forced them to abandon the uniform once and for all.
Today, as the former Minister of National Education Pap Ndiaye recalled in January 2023, “establishments, in complete freedom, by modifying their internal regulations, can [tout à fait] impose, if they wish, school uniform”.
Uniform at school: why Brigitte Macron is for
In an interview given to Parisian and produced by seven readers of the daily, published on January 12, 2023, Brigitte Macron said she was in favor of wearing school uniforms. Reminding the panelists of her fight against school bullying, she also mentioned the reason why she supported the wearing of an outfit pre-established by schools.
“I wore the uniform as a student: fifteen years of navy blue skirt, navy blue sweater”, she recalled to the Parisian. An experience of which she has fond memories. The first lady considered the advantages of standardizing outfits: it would not bring differentiation between students and would save money “compared to brands”, she argued. It would also be an opportunity for students to save time because “it’s time-consuming to choose how to dress in the morning”. If the uniform were to return to French schools, there would however be a condition supported by Brigitte Macron: it would take “a simple and not sad outfit”.