Gilles de Robien, the Education Minister, called yesterday for trials in a few schools with a view to reintroducing uniforms across the country.The move comes as debate rages in France over the need to restore order on unruly youths, and as ministers in Switzerland and Germany are also expressing support for a return to a formal dress code.

M de Robien was supported by François Bayrou, head of the centrist Union for Democracy in France party and a likely candidate in next year’s presidential election. He urged his compatriots to “reflect on the British approach”.

British-style uniforms were abandoned in French schools after the Second World War when pupils were told to wear overalls instead. But those, too, disappeared after the May 1968 riots ushered in a philosophy of individual freedom.

School dress codes now tend to be lax, although the Government introduced legislation banning pupils from wearing religious symbols, notably Muslim headscarves, in 2004.

Calls for a return to uniforms have caught the mood of a nation increasingly worried about its youth. Both the leading contenders for the presidency — the Socialist Ségolène Royal and Nicolas Sarkozy, the centre-right Interior Minister — have pushed order and discipline to the centre of their policies. In an opinion poll published yesterday 59 per cent of respondents said that they would prefer more order and authority in France, while 37 per cent said they would prefer greater personal freedom.

The mood is also changing among parents, with 48 per cent saying that they are in favour of restoring uniforms and 44 per cent against. Mothers are more likely than fathers to favour school uniforms.

Although supporters of school uniforms cite discipline as a reason, parents also have an eye on the household budget, with a typical family now estimated to spend between €600 (£420) and €700 a year on clothes for teenage children.

Yesterday M de Robien said uniforms “may be an interesting way of avoiding the rush for expensive clothes, although I would not want to take a dogmatic approach to this”.

Dominique Marcilhacy, a spokeswoman for the Union of European Families, said: “Children who don’t have the right clothes are rejected and ostracised in a very cruel way. That is a good reason to consider uniforms.”

Some senior French politicians are also calling for l’uniforme à l’école to stamp out what they describe as indecent clothes — and particularly the Lolita look.

Eric Raoult, the Mayor of Raincy, near Paris, for instance, denounced girls “who wear low-slung jeans so everyone can see the ring in their navel. They wouldn’t be allowed into a nightclub like that.”

FROM HITLER YOUTH TO SAILOR HERO

Japan Secondary school girls wear sailor dresses as school uniform. The Japanese cartoon Sailor Moon features girls whose sailor dresses, below, mutate into sailor-superhero costumes

Germany School uniforms have long been reviled as reminiscent of the Hitler Youth. Recently, girls wearing burkas to school have prompted calls for a reintroduction of school uniforms

US Previously rare, uniforms were adopted in 25 per cent of primary and 12 per cent of secondary schools after President Clinton’s 1996 State of the Union address endorsed them in an attempt to combat gang violence

Britain Uniforms for boys developed first in Britain in the 19th century, and were adopted by colonies such as Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, where uniforms are still common

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