Abandoned in 1968 in mainland France, the uniform remains widespread in most schools in Guadeloupe and Martinique. The result of general acceptance, it is anchored in West Indian society.
Green top and blue skirt, like every morning, Maëlisse, 10, is dressed the same way as her sister. “Not quite! Because I wear a skirt and she wears jeans,” the schoolgirl qualifies. At the Rivière-Salée primary school in Martinique, the students wear what is called the “single outfit” with the only watchword being a color code: green and blue. “I like my uniform, I’ve gotten used to it! Even if sometimes I would have liked to dress how I want,” says Maëlisse.
The “common outfit” will also be tested from the start of the 2024 school year, which is being held this Monday, September 2, in around a hundred establishments in France. While the State is planning a possible generalization in 2026, in Guadeloupe and Martinique, hundreds of thousands of students are used to going to school dressed for the most part in a school uniform.
Inherited from the colonial era, “the uniform became widespread around twenty years ago in Martinique following numerous attacks in schools”, according to Michel Tondellier, sociologist, lecturer at the University of the Antilles and author ofSchool uniform in Martinique, questioning the obvious.
The aim of this system was above all to “respond to a security issue by making it possible to identify students using a uniform”. Before this regulation, it was much easier for individuals from outside to infiltrate the school premises. “The most fascinating thing is that it was never imposed by the rectorate, since it is up to each establishment and the parents of students to make it compulsory or not”, recalls the sociologist.
If wearing a uniform was a security-related matter when it was introduced, it is now commonplace for students.
“I don’t even notice it anymore, I’ve always worn it. It’s a tradition here, but for me it’s also synonymous with unity,” confides Nathanaël, 14, a student at a middle school in Basse-Terre (Guadeloupe).
An opinion that might surprise in France, but which also reflects the need to “erase inequalities on an island where more than 34% of the population lives below the poverty line”, recalls a parent of students. In Martinique and Guadeloupe, expect to pay between 70 and 300 euros per year for a complete uniform, depending on local suppliers.
“It represents a great saving and a considerable time gain in the morning!” shares the mother of Aliyah, 9 years old, a CM1 student at the Ambroise Palix school (Martinique).
While the savings are significant for parents, the uniform can sometimes reveal inequalities that it was supposed to erase. “In the poorest families, the uniform is often passed down from generation to generation, with the little brother inheriting the older brother’s polo shirt and so on,” observes Michel Tondellier. In fact, the palest or most faded garment then becomes the preserve of the poorest families.
As part of the uniform experiment in France, the former Minister of National Education, Gabriel Attal, announced that the “common outfit” would be completely free for families. The costs will be shared between the State and local authorities.
An initiative that is “astonishing” to say the least, when we know that Martinique and Guadeloupe, two of the poorest departments in France, do not have this aid, maintains the headmistress Marie-Clotilde Hardy-Dessources. “I hope that our elected officials will mobilize so that this financial aid is generalized across the territory,” she castigates.
Behind these issues, there is also a more “regulatory” dimension.
“Thanks to the uniform, schools think they can restore their image by erasing what they think is an image of bad boy or ‘easy girl'”, analyzes Michel Tondellier.
The teaching teams will then try to correct these stereotypes that they project onto the students by banning what they consider to be part of these clichés, such as “skirts that are too short” and “wearing pants below the buttocks”. With a dual objective from the point of view of the establishments: “Prevent the eroticization of young girls while distancing boys from a street culture”, deciphers the sociologist.
But that’s not all. For some principals, the uniform is also a way of preparing students for working life. “We teach them that at school, as at work, proper dress is required. This reflects important values such as respect and belonging to a group,” suggests Marie-Clotilde Hardy-Dessources, principal at the AMEP Martinique high school.
In some school internal regulations, we also find the mention “clean hair, properly styled and without eccentricity”. Points which correspond, for Michel Tondellier, to the idea – questionable – that the school has of the “good student”. “All these regulations are ultimately the crystallization of social norms promoted by the educational team”.
“Make the pill go down”
To encourage students to adhere to the uniform, some schools have taken the gamble of including the main stakeholders. In 2010, the management of the Acajou II high school in Martinique launched a school competition to allow students to choose the colors and logo of their school.
“Among several polo shirts designed by high school students, we had to elect by majority vote the uniform that suited us best,” explains Mathéo, a former student. White polo shirt, red stripes and “Acajou II” carefully written on the back, it was the work of a First Year Literary student who had finally won it at the time.
“The idea was to unite the students around a school uniform and to make them actors in their uniform through a fun project,” recalls a teacher from Acajou II high school.
“A strategy that paid off” according to Mathéo, which helped “to make the pill go down easier”. “I remember that there was a kind of excitement around this event, because for the first time, our opinion was taken into account”.
Lack of scientific data
To date, there is no scientific study attesting to the effects of school uniforms in France. “Simply because until now it was not a subject for France,” says Michel Tondellier.
In the English-language literature, which is much richer on the subject, some researchers such as David Brunsman have looked into the issue. In an article published by The Journal of Educational Research in 1998, the sociologist even suggests that the uniform can have negative effects, further deepening social inequalities.
Indeed, most American public schools where uniforms are compulsory mainly bring together students from disadvantaged backgrounds and are therefore easily identifiable by their school uniform. Whileon the contrarywealthier establishments require it less often.
According to the American researcher, this phenomenon is based on the belief that uniforms have positive effects on the school environment and student results. This apparent consensus on uniforms, which is also found in the Antilles, “is based above all on the opinion of the inhabitants”, believes Michel Tondellier, without any scientific study to support it.
