France Deploys 3,000 Educators to Schools as Protests Persist at 141 Closures
Updated
Updated · Fox News · Oct 10
France Deploys 3,000 Educators to Schools as Protests Persist at 141 Closures
3 articles · Updated · Fox News · Oct 10
Summary
Education Minister Édouard Geffray ordered 3,000 qualified educators to the hardest-hit schools in an emergency plan costing several dozen million euros.
141 schools still remained closed and nearly 10% of teaching hours in French public high schools were unstaffed, showing the concession has not resolved complaints over overcrowding, heat, aging buildings and absent teachers.
France spent $16,674 per upper-secondary student in 2023, above the OECD average of $12,421, but ministry data show 72% of education spending goes to salaries and pensions while just 8.5% goes to investment.
That mismatch is colliding with a wider fiscal and political squeeze: public debt reached 117.6% of GDP in early 2026, borrowing costs have risen, and Macron's fractured parliamentary position limits broader fixes.
Experts say the school protests, which began in September around Paris, are now being amplified by radical political actors, turning an education dispute into a broader test of France's polarized system.