PARIS — Officials in France announced new measures on Thursday aimed at reinforcing secular values at French schools, after the terrorist attacks in Paris exposed serious cultural rifts with children in heavily immigrant communities others in classrooms throughout the country.
Teachers are to receive new training, students will be exposed more deeply to moral and civics lessons, and classroom activities would include the singing of the “Marseillaise.”
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On Thursday, several union leaders hailed Ms. Vallaud-Belkacem’s initiatives as an appropriate response to the students’ actions. “Teachers were unprepared and didn’t often find the words to confront students who criticized Charlie Hebdo,” said Bernadette Groison, the general secretary of the Fédération Syndicale Unitaire, the main union for French civil servants. “They need support.”
Maia de la Baume
