“We will no longer be able to wear the abaya at school”, says Minister Gabriel Attal

2023-08-27 21:02:01

“The start of the school year is ready. ” Invited this Sunday evening of the JT of TF1, the Minister of National Education, Gabriel Attal, returned to the major measures of the start of the school year, which will take place on September 4. Among the key measures: the ban on young girls wearing the abaya, these long traditional dresses. “We will no longer be able to wear the abaya at school,” he insisted.

Asked about attacks on secularism, which have been on the increase lately, the minister announced that he wanted to meet “as of next week” with school officials to help them apply this ban. He said he wanted to give “clear rules at the national level” to school heads, without however detailing the content.

“Secularism is a freedom to emancipate oneself through school,” insisted the minister. As soon as he was appointed to rue de Grenelle at the end of July, he judged that coming to school in an abaya was “a religious gesture, aimed at testing the resistance of the Republic to the secular sanctuary that the School must constitute”, promising to be “firm on this subject”. “You enter a classroom, you must not be able to identify the religion of the students by looking at them,” he further defended.

Bac specialty tests postponed to June

During this ten-minute interview, Gabriel Attal also returned to the cost of school supplies, up 23% in primary school. In particular, he affirmed his desire to “simplify the list of supplies as much as possible” and announced that he was working on a system that would allow purchases at “wholesale prices” via National Education.

Finally, the minister confirmed that the baccalaureate specialty exams would now be held in June and no longer in March in order to limit student disengagement. On the other hand, the course schedule will not be modified.