French public education is facing a crisis marked by systemic staff shortages, worsening working conditions, and chronic underinvestment, according to an official statement released by the Fédération Syndicale Unitaire (FSU). In a formal declaration to the Conseil Supérieur de l’Éducation (CSE), the union warned that public schools lack the necessary personnel, time, and resources to support students effectively, pointing directly to political choices led for more than 10 years as the root cause of the decline.
Working Conditions and Staff Shortages Plaguing Public Schools
Public school employees are currently enduring an accumulation of missions, injunctions and dispositifs, and an intensification of their daily work, according to the FSU. Classes remain too charged, while schools struggle with difficulties of replacement and an inclusion insufficiently accompanied. The union emphasizes that the decline in results in the PISA survey of French students cannot be read independently from these deteriorating study conditions, which prevent personnel from exercising their profession.
Demographic Shifts Versus Budgetary Austerity Measures
Rather than treating the demographic decline as an accounting opportunity, the FSU argues that fewer students should allow for better intake, better support, and better success, including reducing class sizes and reinforcing teams. According to the union’s statement, the demography must allow for working differently to deploy a true policy of fighting social and academic inequalities. However, years of under-investment and a decline in educational spending relative to national wealth have forced the national education system to continue doing more with less.
Calls to Action and Upcoming Public Sector Strikes
In response to government inaction, the FSU is pressing the minister to implement recommendations from the CSE’s specialized ecological transition commission and to fully apply the law regarding the INFENES specialty to reinforce the skills of nurses in national education and higher education. Citing the need to mobilize for salaries and working conditions, the FSU, alongside public service trade unions, has called on personnel to join a day of strike on September 29 against austerity budgetary choices.
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