Education: "We made the mistake of considering secularism as an acquired principle"

Europe 1 6:51 p.m., October 16, 2021

INTERVIEW

On the occasion of the commemoration of the assassination of Samuel Paty, Pierre Liscia, spokesperson for

the party of Valérie Pécresse, was the guest of Pierre de Vilno this Saturday on Europe 1 to debate secularism.

He regretted the abandonment of the teaching of this republican principle in French schools, a renunciation which had harmful consequences on the understanding that students have of secularism.

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"Knives" to the principle of secularism

The Ile de France regional councilor regrets that the principle of secularism has long been taken for granted. "As it was taken for granted for a long time, we have accommodated here and there small blunders to the principle of secularism, considering that secularism was not called into question as a whole. We have a few blows of penknives in principle secularism in the classrooms. By dint of knife blows, we find ourselves with a whole generation that does not understand that we can show the caricatures of Muhammad in a classroom and, worse than that, who consider that it is a provocation. We cannot ask professors to master this subject when you have elected officials who are not themselves comfortable with this principle. "

"Many of the teachers interviewed say that they are not armed to teach secularism. Many discard by saying that they are not history teachers," explained Pierre Liscia.

"We left the field of secularism to History-Geography teachers who no longer have time to complete their program and who consider that civic education programs are not essential," he regretted.