High schools: behind public order, the education question remains unanswered

Since 17 October, public debate has revolved around the violence, policing and the security arrangements announced for the new day of mobilisation on Saturday 24 October. No cause justifies looting. But by talking so much about the street, we end up forgetting why high school students took to it in the first place. Their question is simple: who will teach them tomorrow, and in what buildings?

The facts

The movement started in high schools at the end of September. According to Public Sénat, the young protesters denounce deteriorating teaching conditions, absent teachers who are not replaced and the dilapidated state of school buildings, which is at the heart of their demands.

The government first responded on replacements. On 8 October on TF1, the Minister of National Education, Édouard Geffray, announced the deployment of 3,000 replacement teachers in high schools from 12 October. Europe 1 explained where they come from: these are not new recruits but teachers assigned to replacement zones, the so-called "floating" teachers, of whom the country has around 10,000, some of them without an assignment. The minister also proposed paying overtime in advance to teachers who agree to cover short absences. According to the same source, a ministry tool classifies 114 high schools as "in the red" and 400 as "in orange".

The 2027 budget, under discussion in the National Assembly, sets the framework. According to Public Sénat, the "school education" mission would rise from 64.43 to 65.53 billion euros, and National Education is one of the four ministries spared from spending cuts. Yet the bill provides for the elimination of 1,588 teaching posts, 1,250 of them in the public sector. Le Café pédagogique gives the breakdown: 414 in primary education and 836 in secondary, that is, in collèges and lycées.

The positions

The government puts forward a serious argument that deserves a hearing. According to Le Café pédagogique, schools should have around 180,000 fewer pupils at the start of the 2027 school year, after a drop of 160,000 this year. The ministry argues that strict proportionality would have meant cutting 9,600 posts, Public Sénat reports. It is also creating 1,300 posts for assistants supporting pupils with disabilities, as well as posts for senior education advisers and medical and social staff. In its press kit, it presents the school system as the "first public service of the State" and promises to keep reducing the number of pupils per class.

The government is not making savings on young people. — Édouard Geffray, quoted by AFP

Teachers, for their part, question the scope of the announcements. Interviewed by Europe 1, Maxime Reppert, vice-president of the SNALC union, said the figure of 3,000 replacements was not credible as it stands.

It looks more like a communication stunt. — Maxime Reppert, SNALC

Le Café pédagogique notes that, once inflation is taken into account, the budget increase amounts to maintaining funding rather than a genuine additional effort.

On the political front, the education issue is now overshadowed by the security controversy. Mediapart has published material according to which a senior officer of the territorial intelligence service was allegedly asked to name La France insoumise as responsible for the movement, which the Interior Ministry denies. For Saturday, the Interior Minister, Laurent Nuñez, announced reinforcements and mentioned that a ban on certain demonstrations was being considered, according to Euronews and AFP.

Analysis

The demographic argument is real, but it does not settle the matter. The fall in pupil numbers is a rare opportunity: to finally reduce class sizes and build a genuine pool of replacement teachers, without massive new spending. Cutting 836 posts in secondary education at the very moment when high schools are mobilising against unreplaced absences sends the opposite signal to the one the government claims to be sending.

Redeploying replacement-zone teachers is a useful measure, because it mobilises teachers who are already being paid. But above all it shows that the problem is one of organisation as much as resources: if thousands of teachers could be assigned within a few days, why were they not assigned before? A replacement policy cannot depend on pressure from the street.

Then there are the buildings, absent from the announcements. According to Public Sénat, the draft budget asks local authorities for an effort of 5.5 billion euros, even though it is the regions that maintain high schools. Asking regions to renovate dilapidated high schools while reducing their room for manoeuvre simply shifts the problem without solving it.

Finally, national cohesion is at stake. A generation that feels the State only listens to it when it blockades its school learns a bad civic lesson. The role of a republican government is to respond to legitimate demands before the most violent take them over, and to clearly distinguish between students who demonstrate and those who loot.

Conclusion

The government has promised to deliver on public order on Saturday. It would be wise to do the same for schools. Two steps are within reach in the ongoing budget debate: suspending the 2027 cuts to secondary teaching posts in order to turn them into a replacement pool, and creating a dedicated budget line for renovating high schools, co-financed with the regions. The real question is now for MPs: will they use the demographic decline to make savings, or to finally improve learning conditions?

Article written with the help of artificial intelligence.