The Ministry of National Education identified 313 reports in September for attacks on secularism in schools, colleges and high schools.
The share of incidents related to the wearing of religious outfits is on the rise, he said in a statement on Thursday.
“This start of the school year is in line with the level of reports observed during the previous school term, which recorded 904, from April to July”, specifies the ministry.
They are however up compared to the average for the first quarter of 2022 (December to March), when 627 incidents were recorded.
These figures were previously communicated quarterly, but their publication is now on a monthly basis from September, at the request of the Minister of Education, Pap Ndiaye, who has promised “transparency” on these subjects.
For September, 54% of the incidents recorded are for the “wearing of religious signs and outfits”, i.e. a higher proportion than in the second quarter of 2022 (41% of reports).
This reason represented 22% of the total reports in the first quarter of 2022, already on the rise.
For this category, "the upward trend identified during the year 2021-2022 continues", underlines the rue de Grenelle, which houses the ministry.
82% of facts come from students against 8% for staff
8% of reports concern a suspicion of proselytism (unchanged), 7% a refusal of school activity (compared to 13% in the second quarter), 7% a teaching challenge (compared to 10%), 7% community demands (compared to 5%), 5% verbal provocations (against 7%), 2% a refusal of republican values (against 3%) and 10% other forms of attacks on secularism (against 14%).
Pap Ndiaye had already warned that feedback from the field confirmed "an increase in reports" of attacks on secularism at school since the start of the school year for "wearing clothes", such as abayas, traditional outfits worn over clothes. other clothes for women, and qamis, long clothes for men.
Read alsoReligious signs at school: the note that alerts
By type of establishment, the majority of incidents in September took place in high schools (51%), which is significantly more than in the April-July period (30%).
36% took place in colleges (compared to 51%) and 13% in the first degree (compared to 19%).
Finally 82% of these attacks on secularism come from students, a stable figure (81% before).
8% come from staff (7% before), 5% from parents of students (against 7%) and 5% from other authors (against 4%).
Finally, the ministry points out that the Values of the Republic teams, which help the educational teams on these issues, received 221 requests for advice in September (compared to 493 over the April-July period).
