For a French student sitting in a classroom of 32, the government’s school offer is not a political package, but a number: 28. That is the maximum class size ministers have promised, as part of a package that also cancels 836 planned teacher cuts, adds 500 new teaching positions, and devotes almost 4.5 billion dollars to school buildings by 2030. If those numbers are delivered, they will change daily life in French schools in ways that a press conference cannot.
Class size is the most tangible promise. A class of 28, rather than 32 or more, means a teacher can spend more time with each student, mark work more quickly, and notice sooner when a student is struggling. It also means quieter rooms, fewer disruptions and more space, all of which matter for learning, especially in subjects that need individual attention, such as reading, mathematics and languages. Student unions have long argued that class size is not a luxury, but a condition for quality, and the government’s cap is a concession to that argument.
The staffing promise is equally concrete. Cancelling 836 planned cuts means schools will not lose teachers they expected to lose, and adding 500 new teaching positions means some schools will gain teachers they did not expect to gain. Together, those moves should ease shortages in subjects where recruitment is difficult, and reduce the reliance on substitute teachers who cover classes without knowing the students. For headteachers, the difference between a cut and a new post is the difference between a timetable that works and one that does not.
Buildings, the forgotten promise
School buildings are the least glamorous part of the package, and the most expensive. Almost 4.5 billion dollars for buildings by 2030 would address leaking roofs, outdated heating, crowded canteens and classrooms that were built for smaller cohorts. A student who learns in a cold, overcrowded room learns less well than a student in a warm, well maintained one, and parents know that difference when they visit a school. The building promise will be judged, over the next five years, by whether scaffolding appears, or whether the money remains a line in a budget.
Replacing Parcoursup by 2028, the higher education platform criticised as opaque and elitist, is the package’s longest term promise, and the one that matters most to older students. Parcoursup decides, for many students, which university course they can enter, and its perceived unfairness has fuelled student anger for years. A replacement, if it is more transparent, could rebuild trust in the system that allocates places, but only if students and teachers are involved in designing it, rather than being presented with a new platform built by the same administration.
Why students are not satisfied yet
Student unions applauded the initial steps, but said they will continue leading protests until a comprehensive funding plan with additional amendments is put forward. That position reflects a lesson from past concessions: a package announced on Monday can be diluted by Tuesday, if the funding is not locked in, if the class cap is not enforced, or if the new posts are not recruited. Students are therefore treating the offer as a first step, not a settlement, and their blockade call for Tuesday and Thursday is a way of keeping the pressure on until the funding plan arrives.
For teachers, parents and students, the test is now practical. Are classes smaller in September? Are new teachers in post? Are buildings being repaired? Those questions will be answered in classrooms, not in press releases, and they will decide whether the government’s offer ends the school crisis, or merely pauses it.
