Just 115 years ago, the 1905 law, known as the separation of Church and State, was promulgated, the founding text of French secularism. Throughout the week, events around secularism are organized in schools in Côte-d’Or, debates in classes, exhibitions, meetings with certain journalists, cartoonists.
The Côte-d’Or, land of secularism?
Essential actions, even if our department remains rather protected against attacks on secularism, according to Frédéric Batlle, the referent of the values of the Republic for the rectorate of Dijon. “There are around 800 breaches per year in France of the principle of secularism, fortunately the Côte-d’Or department is relatively spared from this phenomenon. The main breaches concern the challenge of teaching, and the wearing of signs or outfits ostensibly manifesting a religious affiliation. “
A phenomenon certainly moderate, but denounced, more and more, by the teaching staff in Côte-d’Or, in particular on science education, which is the subject of questioning by some students. “We have cases that actually come from both students and their families. This is called the teaching challenge. This mainly concerns science lessons, history-geography lessons, or sports practice”, specifies Frédéric Batlle.
Will teachers soon be better trained?
Powerless, some teachers refuse to discuss secularism in class, for fear of triggering violent discussions. “This is exactly what we want to fight”, provides the academic referent, referring to the training of teachers. “There is an initial training, which obviously deals with this issue, and then a program of continuous training throughout the teachers’ careers. This year, we have also decided to focus on this subject, through a ambitious plan which will begin with an academic seminar on January 14 at the Lycée Carnot in Dijon, in the presence of two members of the council of the Sages of secularism. The objective then, is that in each establishment and school a training is put in place. must be alongside teachers to enable them to tackle all the issues on the national education program. ”
In the meantime, the advice to each teacher in the event of a problem is to bring all the elements up to the hierarchy. “He must absolutely report to his school director or head of establishment. This is the very reason for the existence of this ‘values of the republic’ team within the rectorate of Dijon, since the objective that no attack on secularism remains unanswered. It is the mission assigned to me by the rector. “
A law on separatism … renamed
This Wednesday also coincides with the presentation in the Council of Ministers of the law on separatism, renamed “law strengthening respect for the principles of the republic”. It aims in particular to better supervise home education. Some children are indeed home-schooled for religious reasons, even if again according to Frédéric Batlle, the Côte-d’Or remains little concerned. “We have around 250 to 300 students who are homeschooled in the Côte-d’Or department, from kindergarten to 12th grade. Checks are carried out regularly, all families are visited at least once a year and it is checked that the instruction is really given to these children. “
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