Pupils to learn moral values

CHILDREN will get an hour a week of lessons teaching them republican values such as “dignity, freedom and equality” but also politeness, respecting rules and team spirit.

Education Minister Vincent Peillon said classes would start in 2015 and his proposal comes as French politicians undergo some soul-searching in the aftermath of the Cahuzac tax fraud scandal.

He said children from kindergarten up to final year would get lessons on the common values of everyday life, with “a minimum of an hour a week” in primary and college secondary school and a minimum 18 hours a year in lycée high school.

However, his original plans for teaching “morale laïque” “secular moral values” were criticised by former education minister Luc Chatel as being the same as Maréchal Pétain’s call to end the “decadence” of France in the Second World War. The name of the courses has now been changed to “enseignement moral et civique” - teaching moral and civic values.

He said teaching these values would be the “responsibility for each school” and it will not be treated as a separate subject. Teachers will get training to deal with religious differences.
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