Last January, French-speaking schools received a circular intended to help them draft their internal regulations, this set of rules governing life together within the school, authorized or unauthorized outfits and disciplinary sanctions. The ROI plays an essential role so that the school is a place of peaceful collective life, so that the school climate is serene, and to protect everyone from arbitrariness and injustice. It allows “to structure the living environment, to clarify the rights and duties of each, to make people responsible, to allow reflection and distance from incidents or transgressions that occur in the establishment, defines the text of the Minister of Education Caroline Désir.
For the ecologist MP Matteo Segers, these regulations should also take into account the question of emotional manifestations between students. “It comes back to us that there are internal regulations in certain schools which prohibit kissing. It has come back to me that kids have been reprimanded for a kiss. That raises questions. we don’t want children to be held back in their tracks. Pleasure and love are important”he explains.
“The school threatened my son with sanctions if he fails to sell raffle tickets”
These questions can be tackled within the framework of education in relational, affective and sexual life. Society is changing, this is an opportunity to shake things up a bit. Many questions are linked to it: consent, the inclusion of LGBTQIA+ people…
The UFAPEC (French-speaking union of parents’ associations in Catholic education) is not opposed to the idea. “It is clear that these questions must be integrated into the fundamental reflection on the internal regulations. In the third kindergarten, the manifestations of affection are not comparable to those which can exist between two teenagers of fifteen years. It is important that children learn that there are gestures that can be done in public and others not and these debates have their place in school”, considers Bernard Hubien. “There are reflections to be carried out so that all these rules are clarified and worked on with the pupils. The participation of the pupils is essential otherwise the rules do not make sense”, he specifies.