France announces deployment of 3,000 substitute teachers to struggling schools

French Education Minister Édouard Geffray announced plans to send around 3,000 substitute teachers to secondary schools facing the most serious staffing shortages. The measures were presented amid protests by high school students.

Speaking on TF1 on October 8, the minister said a software tool had identified 114 schools with a red problem rating and another 400 with an orange rating. The tool, requested a year earlier, was used for the first time at the start of the current school year.

Deployment was scheduled to begin on October 9. The announcement concerns assigning existing substitute teachers, rather than hiring 3,000 new employees. The minister also promised to authorise the recruitment of several hundred additional teachers beyond normal limits where shortages persist.

A further measure involves bringing forward funding for several hundred thousand additional teaching hours under the teachers’ pact programme. It will pay volunteers to cover absent colleagues within their schools.

Geffray put the cost through the end of the year at millions or tens of millions of euros. Students protesting since mid-September are demanding better learning conditions and increased education funding.