Secularism is “today more than ever threatened” in schools, said this Wednesday March 13 in an interview with AFP Gabriel Attal, who promises the establishment of “pedagogical support units” to help students. teachers confronted with “resistance, even challenges” to their teaching.
“Secularism is threatened. It is probably today more than ever. It has its enemies, they are political, religious. But it also has its defenders: our teachers, our civil servants, our law enforcement,” declared the Prime Minister, two days before the 20th anniversary of the 2004 law against the wearing of ostentatious religious outfits or symbols at school.
“The enemies of secularism seek to infiltrate the school”
“What worries me the most today is that we are seeing an increase in the number of reports for contesting teaching. I see this as a sign that the enemies of secularism are still present and seek to infiltrate the school and weaken it”, but also “a sign that a word is being released” among teachers, added the head of government. Against this phenomenon, he promises the establishment of “pedagogical support units” for teachers who so wish, “reachable directly by teachers who are apprehensive about a teaching sequence, who face resistance, or even protests from their teachings.
It will be “a contact at the level of the rectorate which can offer them three main solutions: educational support with reference teachers who can give them advice on tackling certain sequences of the program; a physical presence of non-teaching staff within the class; or the physical presence of trained staff, for example part of the ‘values of the Republic’ academic teams.
Gabriel Attal returns in force to the school field, maintaining doubts about the room for maneuver of his minister Nicole Belloubet. The Prime Minister is due to go to a college in Chartres this Thursday. He will also lead, on the same day, a video conference meeting with the heads of establishments (colleges, high schools) to “re-anchor his roadmap, particularly on the ‘shock of knowledge'”, this series of measures for the school announced in December to raise the level of students.