The ban is now in place: inclusive writing will not find a place in school curricula.
We already knew the position of the Minister of National Education regarding inclusive writing. Today, he has officially banned its use at school. In a circular addressed to the rectors of academies, to the directors of the central administration, as well as to the staff of the Ministry of National Education, Youth and Sports, Thursday, May 6, the ministry Explain. If equality between girls and boys should be “built, promoted and guaranteed by the School of the Republic”, it must be done in particular by “the training of all staff and the transmission of a culture of equality”, he recalls.
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Clearly, the feminization of certain terms must be promoted, but not penalize students by resorting to inclusive writing. “whose complexity and instability constitute as many obstacles to the acquisition of language as of reading”.
Agreements made too complex
In its circular, the ministry quotes Hélène Carrère d’Encausse, perpetual secretary of the French Academy and Marc Lambron, current director of the French Academy. Both felt, on May 5, 2021, that inclusive writing “is not only counterproductive” at a time of the fight against sexist discrimination, “but harmful to the practice and intelligibility of the French language”.
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Also, compliance with grammatical rules “is de rigueur” in the teachings. According to them, it is therefore necessary “outlaw the use of inclusive writing”, because some rules falling under this writing “modify the respect of the rules of usual agreements” taught at school. The fragmentation of words and chords also constitutes “an obstacle to reading and understanding writing”. The school will therefore not participate in the teaching of inclusive writing; parents will have to, if they wish, introduce their children to this practice themselves.