Controversial Census Request Contradicts Education Code and Secularism, Says UNSA Education Montpellier

While in the Toulouse academy the request emanating directly from the Ministry of the Interior, had received an end of refusal from the academic services, in Montpellier the initiative had been relayed directly by the departmental services of Hérault . The management staff of Hérault had received by email a request for a census of absentees for the day of Eid-el-Fitr and more generally those for the month of Ramadan.

Quickly canceled, this census request deeply shocked the staff of our academy as well as our federation. Since a law of March 15, 2004, which regulates in particular the wearing of religious symbols in schools, it is provided that students of a denomination other than Catholic or Protestant can be granted authorizations of exceptional absence for certain religious holidays. . This census was therefore contrary to the Education Code and contrary to the very principle of secularism.

For UNSA Education Montpellier, it was urgent for our Rector to position herself on the subject.. The Rector spoke at the end of the opening statements and answered us on this controversy. The rector was very clear on the fact that the approach came directly from territorial intelligence. She specified that this request should never have been relayed by the Hérault departmental services. She insisted that it was out of the question to make such an investigation and to stigmatize a religion.

At UNSA Education, we are committed to the republican, humanist and secular school and we claim the fact that in our republic a child’s supposed religion cannot be suspected. A reflection on absenteeism is not devoid of meaning when it is global, but this reflection cannot be done by stigmatizing a confession.

UNSA Education also fights all those who exploit secularism to make it a vector of exclusion.