It is a recurring debate: the subject of secularism at school. Regularly attacked by the right and the extreme right on this issue, Pap Ndiaye asked the rectors for “firmness” in the application of the principles of secularism at school, recalling that there was no establishment school of “lawlessness. The Minister of National Education brought together the rectors on Tuesday on the issues of school bullying and secularism.
“On secularism, he called on them to be firm and to respect the 2004 circular. He asked them to support establishments where problematic situations were detected,” said Pap Ndiaye’s entourage. The minister enjoined the rectors “to work in coordination with the prefectures and to share the different situations interministerially. He reminded them that there was no non-law establishment, ”we continued from the same source.
Ambivalent figures
Asked after the Council of Ministers, government spokesman Olivier Véran assured Wednesday that the government was “acting” on this subject. “The question is should we adapt our arsenal of responses to a phenomenon that could be spreading and which would pose many problems”, he added in reference to abayas, traditional outfits for women. , accused by adherents of strict secularism of being screens for religious practice.
The monthly figures for declared attacks on secularism for May were published on Wednesday by the Ministry of National Education with ambivalent results. Attacks on secularism in schools fell by 30% overall between April and May, from 625 to 438. They had previously increased sharply in March (to 505, against 282 in February), according to ministry figures.
But the share of incidents relating to the wearing of religious signs and outfits, such as abayas and qamis (long traditional clothing worn by men), increased there, representing 56% of the total against 37% in April and 42% in March. However, this increase is less in absolute value (about fifteen more facts reported).