An education union coalition has called for a week of action from March 30 to April 3, with a national strike on March 31, to protest against the elimination of 4,000 teaching positions at the start of the 2026 school year.
The coalition of education unions is urging to ramp up the mobilization against the teacher layoffs and has organized a week of actions from March 30 to April 3, culminating in a national strike on March 31. The FSU, Unsa, CFDT, CGT, and SUD “denounce the government’s budget choices: job cuts and blocking any salary increase,” they said in a joint statement released on Friday. According to them, “these choices can only further degrade an already depleted public education service.”
The organizations specifically highlight the visible effects in secondary education (middle and high schools): larger class sizes, reduced course offerings, and ‘strangled’ school lives due to lack of resources. In primary education (pre-schools and elementary schools), the unions anticipate, with the school zoning openings next week after the local elections, “thousands” of class closures.
The organizations denounce “a 2026 budget synonymous with deteriorating working conditions, continued salary downgrades.” They urge the government to reconsider its “short-termist” choices and “demand a 2027 budget with job creation measures and salary increases without conditions.”
“4,000 teacher layoffs, public and private combined”
In total, 4,000 teacher layoffs, combining public and private sectors, are expected for the start of the 2026 school year, including 1,891 in public primary education and 1,365 in secondary education. In January, the Minister of National Education, Édouard Geffray, cited a “dizzying demographic decline” to justify these layoffs. According to the Directorate of Statistical Studies of the Ministry of National Education, student enrollments decreased by 1.7% at the start of 2025, with 106,900 fewer students than in 2024.
“On the contrary, the demographic decline should be an opportunity to significantly reduce the number of students per class,” argue the union organizations. Several mobilizations have already taken place across France since mid-February. On February 17, hundreds of people demonstrated in Paris, with about 6.16% of teachers in Île-de-France on strike, while in Bordeaux, a hundred teachers, joined by parents, rallied in front of the Bordeaux rectorate on March 11.
