Atlantico: Pap Ndiaye has redefined the scope of the Council of Elders of Secularism. The Minister of Education is suspected of wanting to dilute its action, is this indeed what is at work?
Guylain Chevrier: Let us recall the role assigned to this body created by former minister Jean-Michel Blanquer in 2018: "to clarify the position of the educational institution on matters of secularism and the secular teaching of religious facts." It has just grown from 15 to 20 members. Joining it are Gwénaële Calvès, professor of public law at the University of Cergy-Pontoise; Christine Darnault, associate professor of literature and academy inspector, deputy chief of staff to the rector of Créteil; Jacques Fredj, director of the Shoah Memorial; Thomas Hochmann, professor of public law at the University of Paris-Nanterre; and finally, the emblematic Alain Policar, sociologist and political scientist, associate researcher at Cevipof. Dominique Schnapper, who chairs the council, when consulted, did not view this expansion with a negative eye but had previously, according to certain internal sources, expressed the greatest reservations about the proposed appointment of the latter, known for his positions in favor of a so-called "more tolerant" secularism, with a multicultural tendency. It should also be noted that the lawyer Gwenaële Calvès has publicly declared herself in favor of "positive discrimination."in an article for Economic Alternatives, January 2005.
At the beginning of April, when the new roadmap for the said Council was outlined, it was reported that the Minister's idea would be to diversify the sensitivities within it, deemed "monochromatic," and to make it a space for debate. To what end? one might be tempted to ask. Is it a body capable of issuing work that reflects our republican institutions, in conjunction with teachers, to help them teach them, or a place of contradiction where criticism can go so far as to call into question secularism itself? Its scope has been broadened "to everything that strengthens students' adherence to the values of the Republic: the fight against racism and anti-Semitism and all forms of hatred and discrimination, gender equality, and the promotion of the principle of fraternity in schools." The Council, which until now could act on its own initiative to provide answers to school principals, will now only act upon referral from the Minister. It is clear that with these appointments and this new direction, the mission of this institution is being profoundly modified. Its action is being diluted by redrawing it into a whole where secularism is attached to a dimension relating to the fight against discrimination, which is increasingly put in competition with it, instead of being its ally, in the name of taking into account the differences in the approach to public policies in this area, which, according to some, should be ethnicized.
Separatism: the government between progress and illusion
What are the risks of this redefinition of the scope of the Council of Elders of Secularism?
The risks are obvious. In an article by Alain Policar, entitled "The critique of antiracism gone mad", first published on the AOC website and then taken up by the FSU union's Research Institute, he analyses what he sees as "the failures of classic antiracism (that of the Licra, SOS Racisme or the Mrap)". According to him, the new generation "recognizes that the policy of indifference to colour has failed. We must now highlight so-called racial identities because race has discriminatory effects on individuals who are attributed a non-white race ('racialised people')". And to denounce a little further "the intrinsically discriminatory functioning of our institutions that the concept of systemic racism reveals". We can already see to what extent we are changing paradigm with his entry into the institution, going so far as to criticise the call launched "Teachers, let's not capitulate!" ", on the so-called "Creil scarves" affair of 1989, signed by Elisabeth Badinter, Régis Debray, Alain Finkielkraut, Elisabeth de Fontenay and Catherine Kintzler in the Nouvel Observateur, to speak of a "fetishized Republic, inattentive to the persistence of discrimination ". When questioned, he has just repeated the same thing, saying that, concerning the law of March 15, 2004 banning religious symbols in public schools, on the one hand he "does not think" that the broadening of the missions of the Council of Elders of Secularism weakens it, to clarify, "The emancipatory dimension of secularism which consists of imposing light, is not what I defend. But rather a Anglo-Saxon approach that takes into account the notion of tolerance. Tolerating the wearing of a headscarf does not mean approving it. » Isn't there a risk that this could be perceived, coming from within this Council itself, as support by the students who are challenging this law, like arsonist firefighters? In a column published in Le Point, entitled "Let's not assassinate secularism!", Samuel Paty's sister castigates the appointment of Alain Policar, "known for his hostility to what he calls repressive or combative secularism." He explains to publicsenat.fr that he is distancing himself from the principle of universalism, because "as indifference to color or religions, it is a good principle but in an ideal world"...
There is a certain program in Alain Policar's remarks, which makes one wonder what it has to do with secularism and the very essential mission of this Council of Elders. This situation risks making the rapprochement of positions on burning issues surrounding the school system, already in a state of fragility, far from the serenity that the issues require, irreconcilable. The former Secretary General of the Constitutional Council Jean-Éric Schoettl, a member of the council and a deeply convinced republican, has resigned. "I personally feel too tired and too pessimistic to wage war alongside them," he explained to Le Figaro.
In what context does this action by the Minister of National Education take place?
The Council of Elders had until then tried as best it could to fulfill its role, in a period marked by the trauma of the assassination of Samuel Paty for the educational community, and the incessant attacks on this cardinal principle within the school itself by students often under the influence of Islamist preachers active on social networks. Let us recall that, according to a survey by the National Union of Directors of National Education (SNPDEN)-Unsa, principals and headmasters do not systematically report attacks on secularism. Some 26% of them have been confronted with challenges to teaching in the name of religious truth, and 37% of them have not reported them to the institution. We know that a survey by Ifop for the magazine Ecran de veille, that barely half of the teachers who noticed that a student was wearing religious clothing on school premises reported it. This is the climate that reigns in the public school institution, which needs to reassure itself about its principles and values, rather than being sown with confusion by this upheaval.
But there is also, in the background, a message delivered by the public authorities that is far from free of inconsistencies. The former Defender of Rights, Jacques Toubon, had, before his departure, in a report on the theme "Discrimination and origins: the urgency to act": denounced according to him a "systemic dimension" of discrimination in France, like Mr. Alain Policar, which can only fuel the accusation of the "Indigènes de la République" of "state racism." The current Defender of Rights, chosen by the President of the Republic, took up a complaint from the CCIF, dissolved for its proximity according to the Council of State with the "supporters of radical Islamism calling for evasion of certain laws of the Republic", complaint that aims to impose the burkini on the Jablines-Annet leisure center in Seine-et-Marne… Mrs. Elisabeth Moreno, Minister Delegate in charge of equality between women and men, Diversity and Equal Opportunities, when she was in government, announced the creation of a "Diversity Index" towards businesses, which aims to help "managers and HR managers to then take corrective measures so that, ultimately, their organization is a better reflection of our society." We are in a policy of minority quotas that is totally contrary to the principle of equality. We can always make a law called "reinforcing the principles of the republic" to fight against separatism, if at the same time we are in such contradictions, the message cannot get through. Another example, when Pap Ndiaye was put by Emmanuel Macron at the head of the Palais de la Porte-Dorée which houses the National Museum of the History of Immigration, with the backdrop of seeing "a child of African origin" thus promoted, the said person explained that "To use the American lexicon, we need "role models". In In terms of diversity in cultural establishments, there is still a lot to do!» (2021). Coming from an upper-middle-class family, he has nothing to do with these young people from the neighborhood who are led to believe that he embodies some kind of success of minorities. We can clearly see that something is wrong through these inconsistencies, with regard to which, the evolution of the Council of Elders is not neutral.
Do his recent decisions reflect a broader goal?
How can we not question the career of Minister Pap Ndiaye in light of what is happening today? His appointment to this position has given rise to many articles saying that he should not be judged on his past, but on his actions. That is the question here. An academic specializing in the social history of the United States, where he did part of his studies, he participates in non-mixed meetings at the invitation of the Black Student. He then adopted the transatlantic vision of Black studies to import it to France, dealing in the same way as in the country of "Uncle Sam" with the question of the population of African descent thus imposed on our country, notably through his work published in 2008: "The black condition; essay on a French minority". Speaking about citizenship in France, he explains: "In the United States, there is not this abstract model that requires us to ignore our individual particularities". Indeed, America thinks of itself more as an addition of differences than a sovereign political body of citizens, through the identity and community affiliations of each, resulting from a history deeply marked by discrimination and institutionalized separations that persist, which has nothing to do with our country. This is how the question of social classes fades before the obsession with the fight for the promotion of minorities, whose veneer of a black middle class cannot make us forget a black population, approximately 13% of Americans, which remains stranded, as its overrepresentation in the prison population testifies (nearly a third). It should be noted, however, that it is rather unusual that a minister who is considered to be "left-wing" because of this type of positioning, defends a model that is one of the hardest socially in the developed world.
He recently stressed the idea that more "social mixing" in schools would be the solution, calling for a contribution in this area from private schools under contract . Is the mixing of populations from different social backgrounds the magic answer to the problems facing schools, and to the preference of some parents for private schools given the failure of public schools to meet their expectations? In the September 2018 poverty plan initiated by the government of the time, it is estimated that "at 4 years old, the gap in family language practice is around 1000 hours depending on social origins and that at the start of CP, at 6 years old, there is a difference of 1000 words mastered to the advantage of children from privileged backgrounds". Should we not question the multiplication of these so-called disadvantaged groups, opposed to others, the so-called privileged, not without a certain exaggeration? We know that integration requires language proficiency, which is not particularly acquired in many immigrant families, for example because they exclusively speak a foreign language at home, which a survey on illiteracy conducted by the National Agency for the Fight against Illiteracy highlights in a 2018 bulletin, indicating that at the age of five, this situation creates a two and a half times greater chance of being illiterate in adulthood. According to a study published online by the Ministry of the Interior on the "Diploma according to the link to migration", nearly a quarter of the parents of those who settle in France as foreigners have never been to school. And again, "immigrants are twice as often non-qualified as descendants of immigrants and people with no link to migration". Isn't this what should be taken into account above all, even if social diversity can play a part? Isn't there also, for immigration from diverse backgrounds, where religion and tradition frequently dominate, a clear message to have in the education of one's children, in favor of an adaptation to French society with its republican secularism which is not spontaneous? There is therefore a strong message to get across here which has nothing to do with the promotion of minorities going with who knows what tolerance to the veil promoted by Alain Policar, but an encouragement to ensure that integration is not an empty word so that France continues to be this society where equality of political, civic, and social rights remains, and a teaching of knowledge free from traditional or religious influences, whose humanist scope has proven itself. But it seems that we are in the presence, with the current Minister of National Education, of a completely different project, if we refer to what has just been imposed on the Council of Elders of Secularism.
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