Original sentence: A leader of the Opportunist Republicans faction, he was twice premier (1880-1881 and 1883-1885).He finally succeeded in passing the eponym laws of June 16, 1881 and March 28, 1882, which made primary education in France free, non-clerical (laïque) and mandatory.In higher education, the number of professors, called the hussards noirs de la République because of their Republican support, doubled under his ministry.The education policies establishing French language as the language of the Republic have been contested in the second half of the 20th century insofar as, if they played an important role in unifying the French nation-state and the Third Republic, they also nearly provoked the extinction of several regional languages
Edited sentence: At a time when many French citizens were naturally fluent in two or more languages, that government-led persecution had effects which can still be felt today.Examples of everyday abuse included pupils and students speaking words in a tongue other than French at school or in the schoolyard being systematically punished and humiliated, with slapping and their fingers whacked by the teacher's ruler common reminders that French and only French was the language of the Republic.Ferry is also considered to be officiously and partly, though not officially and solely, responsible for the repression (and sometimes near-extinction) of regional languages such as Occitan, Breton or Basque (see Bernard Poignant's 1998 report to Lionel Jospin).He finally succeeded in passing the eponym laws of June 16, 1881 and March 28, 1882, which made primary education in France free, non-clerical (laïque) and obligatory.He was twice premier (1880-1881 and 1883-1885).In higher education, the number of professors doubled under his ministry