Racist Exercise Sparks Outrage at French School in Morocco, Prompts Investigation

Racism and sexism at the Ernest Renan primary school in Casablanca. The science exercise submitted to the CM2 students is entitled "Where do the great apes live?". It was a question for the students to identify a Sub-Saharan woman, placed between a gorilla, a bonobo, an orangutan and a chimpanzee. This exercise has shocked the parents. On Twitter, the Parity and Diversity Committee of 2M relayed the parents’ comments denouncing an "indecency and unacceptable attack on human dignity".

"This document presents an exercise (page 1) that may, rightly, have shocked your sensitivity. Indeed, presenting a black woman and the great apes in the same exercise is an inadmissible clumsiness that can refer to amalgams completely contrary to the values that our school defends," reacted Sébastien Galard, director of the Ernest Renan school in an email to parents, before profusely apologizing.