The mayor of Provins (Seine-et-Marne), Olivier Lavenka (Les Républicains), signs the minutes of the consultation on the wearing of uniforms in the town’s public schools, June 2, 2018. PHOTOPQR / LE PARISIEN / MAXPPP
Five years ago, the medieval city of Provins (Seine-et-Marne) ventured, alone, into experimenting with uniforms in public schools. With an inconclusive result, mocks Mélodie (the people cited by their first name only requested anonymity), whose son attends the Marais elementary school: “Today, no child wears a uniform in Provins. Even back then, they were hard to find! » “With the conditions imposed on us, it could only end in half-failure…”, admits with hindsight the mayor, Olivier Lavenka.
The initiative was born at the beginning of 2018. Convinced that the school uniform is a way to fight against social inequalities, the Les Républicains councilor, at the head of the town hall since 2017, launched the idea during his vows, after hearing the Minister of Education at the time, Jean-Michel Blanquer, declare himself in favor of what experiments of this kind see the light of day.
Despite teaching unions opposed to the initiative, he organized a tour of the city’s six public primary schools, before a consultation with parents. The latter voted 62% in favor of the project. Even if the participation turns out to be relative (376 families out of 609), this result decides the municipality to order, during the summer, nearly 700 sets of uniforms, each composed of around ten pieces, from a specialized company. The city’s emblem, the Caesar Tower, is embroidered on the sweaters, sweatshirts and polo shirts of the blue and white outfits, above the Republican motto.
“Avoid the race for brands”
Meanwhile, Mr. Lavenka is surprised to encounter “a discrepancy between the minister’s speech and that of the academic inspection”. The latter refuses to give her consent to modify the internal regulations of the schools (which depend directly on those of the department), in order to include the compulsory wearing of the uniform, during the experiment. For lack of anything better, it is therefore launched on a voluntary basis from families, at the start of the All Saints’ Day holidays.
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Nearly 340 kits, sold at a unit price of 137 euros, are collected by parents from the town hall. Some, like Sébastien, representing parents of students at the Ville-Haute school, actively support the initiative: “It was a good way to avoid the race for brands in the yard. » Others, fiercely opposed, take no part.
But the vast majority do not have a strong opinion. “Many parents bought the uniform without having their children wear it, waiting to see what the others were going to do”, recalls Monique Georges, director of La Voulzie elementary school. On the first day of the school year, less than half of the students wore it.
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2023-12-13 17:43:18
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