“Attacks on secularism at school are largely underestimated”

François Kraus is director of the Politics and News Department at Ifop.

On the occasion of the National Day of Secularism on December 9, he

published a study

From 2018 to 2022, the number of teachers who had already censored themselves to avoid incidents on religious issues rose from 36% (Ifop-CNAL study) to 56% (Ifop study), an increase of 20 points in four years.

To use a famous formula, I would say that "

" if we judge by the generalization of practices of avoidance of subjects linked to secularism.

Since the beheading of Samuel Paty in October 2020, this phenomenon of self-censorship has spread, including in sectors hitherto rather spared, such as rural establishments (49%, +13 points), or elementary schools (49 %, +10 points).

Thus, if it still affects priority education areas more (65%), this

is no longer the prerogative of working-class neighborhoods.

In an educational institution still traumatized by the Conflans-Sainte-Honorine attack, this tendency to avoid angry subjects must be linked to the apprehension of a large part of the teaching staff towards potentially conflicting situations, such as the wearing of religious outfits by students (56%), or the treatment of historical subjects such as the Shoah and colonization (43%).

And this general anxiety is probably not unrelated to the feeling that the institution is unable to ensure the protection of its agents against the risk of attacks... Two years after the assassination of the history professor- geography by a young Chechen Muslim, three-quarters of teachers (77%) believe that the Ministry of National Education does not

In my view, the main lesson of this study is that the rise in apprehension of teachers is not only the fruit of a

, but of a resurgence of violations of the principles of secularism.

These shortcomings are so widespread today that we can only deduce one thing: the 2004 law is not applied in a number of establishments, just like certain more recent instructions from the rue de Grenelle…

Nearly three-quarters of public teachers (71%) report having already observed at least one sprain, within the confines of their establishment, since the application of the 2004 law.

Francois Kraus

In view of the results, attacks on secularism outside of class (eg clothing, food, etc.) are, in fact, neither an

phenomenon , nor a

phenomenon .

On the contrary, nearly three quarters of public teachers (71%) report having already observed at least one sprain, within the confines of their establishment, since the application of the 2004 law. And for most of them , this experience does not go back to

insofar as almost half of public teachers (47%) have been confronted with it in the last fifteen months (September 2021-November 2022), their proportion being moreover, the majority in the popular suburbs (54%).

In public high schools, the bulk of attacks on secularism is, after gender issues, made up of attempts to impose clothing of a religious nature, which suggests that the 2004 law is not respected everywhere.

The most significant figure for the passive attitude of schools in this area is the proportion of public teachers (35%) who report having already seen students wearing religious clothing on school grounds. , but removing them in the classroom.

Read also353 attacks on secularism reported in schools in November

Attempts to impose certain food orders represent the other main type of abuse most reported.

Indeed, nearly half of teachers in public high schools (45%) have already been faced with requests for denominational menus.

Finally, many teachers report forms of community withdrawal, very symptomatic of an

(Jérôme Fourquet) of the high school population, namely the establishment of changing rooms and separate WCs (21%), or tables at the canteen according to the religion of the pupils (22%).

The priority education zones nevertheless remain the

of this cultural fight against the rules of religious neutrality at school.

Like previous surveys conducted by Ifop on the subject (CNAL 2018, FJJ 2020), this study shows that it is in priority areas that attacks on the principle of secularism are the most massive.

Thus, nearly two-thirds of teachers in REP/REP+ (63%) have been confronted with it at least once since the start of the 2021 school year. And in detail, one REP teacher in three reports having already seen students saying their prayers (31 %) on school grounds, refusing to remove clothing of a religious nature (39%), or wearing it outside of classrooms (36%).

Read alsoReims: faced with a video of a young Muslim praying in a classroom, the university opens an investigation

Finally, it is important to note that religious pressures primarily affect young girls who reveal themselves, and teachers who fight against gender stereotypes.

For example, the trend of

of young girls having revealed themselves within a school compound is far from being as

as the CIPDR supposed, in its note unveiled this summer (L' Express, August 23, 2022).

Symptomatic of the communitarian pressures exerted on young Muslim girls to encourage them to transgress the rules of secularism, this tendency to

is reported on average by 14% of the teaching body, but up to 31% of teachers in REP .

Another interest of this study, is that it proves that the reports identified by the teams of the ministry (ex: VALEREP) are only the tip of the iceberg, is that the push of the religious is much broader... In this survey, almost half of the teachers admit that the last time they were confronted with it, they did not report to the administration the case of pupils who wore denominational headgear in their establishment ( 48%).

A significant minority of the teaching staff (10%) even seems to have adopted a complacent attitude, because not only do they not report the wearing of conspicuous religious symbols to their administration, but they do not even ask students to remove them…

The ZEPs form more than ever a "

 " where the School appears to us as a Maginot line that is taking on water...

Francois Kraus

Far be it from us to blame the teachers, or even less to criticize the heavy and laborious census work of the ministry teams, but it is clear that the number of attacks reported monthly by the ministry (ex: 720 in October 2022 ) is now far from corresponding to the actual number of cases observed by staff.

As with physical or sexual violence, only real

type surveys can really measure the extent of the problems.

Another indicator shows the gap between the reality on the ground and the ministerial directives: the low number of teachers who paid tribute to Samuel Paty.

Because if last October, the instruction had been passed by the Ministry of National Education to organize a time of tribute within each establishment for the two years of the death of Samuel Paty, only 61% of teachers report that this was the case in theirs.

The other teachers report either that there was no tribute to the history-geography teacher (28%), or do not know whether there was or not (11%).

In my eyes, it is clear that the school is faced with an upsurge in religious claims in much larger proportions than those measured by the ministry, which means that today, many establishments are choosing to settle these incidents internally (without official escalation), or to

.

It is also clear that a growing proportion of teachers, out of fear, weariness or disagreement with the legislation, have decided not to report any more breaches of secularism, nor to apply ministerial instructions. like the times of homage to Samuel Paty.

In this context of growing anxiety on the part of the teaching staff, this

inevitably raises the question of the reality of the reaction of the institution faced with the

reported by the CIPDR.

Because if this return of the religious fact in society does not emanate only from a confession (see the last wave of the EVS), it is difficult to see in this identity offensive recently signaled by the notes of the services of the State (August 27 and September 16, 2022) something other than the fruit of

(Gilles Kepel), pushed by circles and other Brotherhood, Salafist or pro-Erdogan influencers.

However, in this context of cultural struggle (“

) carried out on a larger scale by this myriad of Islamist activists, the spaces of relegation constituted by the priority education zones form more than ever a "

" where the School appears to us as a Maginot line which takes the water...