Jean-Michel Blanquer said on Sunday: “A parent should be banned from wearing conspicuous religious symbols, namely the Islamic headscarf, when escorting their child to and from school.”
He told RTL radio: “My personal opinion is that anyone who accompanies a child to and from school should be considered a ‘public service worker,’ which means they have a duty to conform to social codes.”
When asked whether he was implying that Muslim mothers should be explicitly banned from wearing the headscarf when dropping off or picking up their children from school, Mr Blanquer said: “Yes. That said, it is not against the law for mothers to wear the Islamic veil to school.
“I respect French law and it is not my place to make sweeping statements about this issue. But we must play by the rules, and the rules must be the same for everyone.”
France adheres to a strict version of secularism known as laïcité, and ostentatious religious symbols and clothing, such as crosses, kippahs and headscarves, have been banned from public schools since 2004.
In December 2013, however, the State Council – France’s supreme administrative court – ruled that school-run parents could not be considered “voluntary public service workers” and did not have the same “duty of religious neutrality” as school teachers.
The State Council ruling, however, directly contradicts a previous decision made in March 2012 by then education minister Luc Chatel to ban parents from wearing ostentatious religious symbols when doing the school run.
But Mr Chatel’s decision was communicated via an internal memo, and was never enshrined into French law.
As a result, whether or not school-gate Muslim mums are allowed to wear the headscarf when doing the school run remains a legal grey area in France, and an outright ban is unlikely.
In July 2016, French president Emmanuel Macron – then economy minister in François Hollande’s socialist government – said he was “against” introducing a new law banning parents from wearing religious symbols when escorting their children to and from school.