"We must respond to the challenges of secularism at school without waiting for the uniform", insists Gabriel Attal

Ophélie Artaud 11:23 a.m., January 15, 2023

The subject was debated a few days ago in the National Assembly.

Thursday, during its parliamentary niche day, the National Rally made a bill to make it compulsory to wear a "uniform outfit in the colors of the establishment" in public schools and colleges.

If it was rejected by the deputies, the subject of wearing a uniform is currently on everyone's lips.

Even the First Lady, Brigitte Macron, who was a school teacher, said in the columns of Le Parisien that she was "for wearing a school uniform, but with a simple and not sad outfit".

"Let's give schools the opportunity to decide"

Guest this Sunday morning of the Grand Rendez-vous d'Europe 1 / Les Échos / CNews, Gabriel Attal, Minister of Action and Public Accounts also returned to the subject.

If he is in favor of experimenting with wearing school uniforms, according to him, this would not settle the questions of secularism and "we must respond to the challenges of secularism in schools today without waiting for the uniform to do so".

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For Gabriel Attal, the interest in the uniform is explained by "an expectation of authority in our country, but also of belonging. When we have a common outfit within the framework of the school or in a project, it there is also a sense of belonging that is sought by young people", he underlines.

Especially since the current Minister in charge of Action and Public Accounts worked on the subject when he was Secretary of State to the Minister of National Education and Youth.

"I had decided that young people would wear the uniform as part of the universal service," he recalls.

"For Emmanuel Macron, secularism is a fundamental issue"

According to him, if it is not necessary for the moment to impose the wearing of the uniform, "initially, let us already perhaps give the possibility to the schools, by consulting the parents of pupils, to decide if they whether or not they want to put on the uniform. It would be a first step that would allow us to see what effects it has and then possibly, if we consider it to be positive, to generalize it", suggests Gabriel Attal.

But for him, the uniform is not an answer to the question of secularism at school.

A subject on which "a lot of resources are committed, in particular to Jean-Michel Blanquer when he was Minister of National Education, who has put in place a framework which already makes it possible to report attacks on secularism in a school setting. Pap Ndiaye continues this work today, in particular by making transparency on what is happening, the reminder of the rules, the support also for our teachers which is absolutely essential”, he affirms.

Before recalling that "for Emmanuel Macron, it is obviously a fundamental issue to fight against all attacks on secularism, whether in a school setting or in other settings", concluded Gabriel Attal.