The city of Paris will ultimately lose a net total of 137 first-grade classes at the start of the school year in September, as announced by the deputy in charge of education to Agence France-Presse on Friday, due to a decrease in the number of students in the capital.
With 174 closures for 37 openings of kindergarten and elementary classes, there will be 137 fewer classes in Paris at the next school year, stated Patrick Bloche from the Socialist Party following a departmental council meeting of national education that required two days of session to review all closures.
These closures are a direct result of the elimination of 125 teaching positions in the academy. The primary school teachers’ union SNUipp-FSU Paris reports a total of 180 closures for 37 openings, denouncing “massive job cuts that will once again significantly deteriorate the teaching conditions for teachers and the learning conditions for students.”
The Federation of Parents’ Councils (FCPE) Paris has criticized a “new bloodletting”: the 2023 school year had already seen the elimination of 155 teaching positions in primary schools, resulting in a comparable net closure of classes, and 182 positions in middle and high schools.
In January, PS mayor Anne Hidalgo denounced the projections from the rectorate for the 2024 school year, mentioning 150 net closures. There will ultimately be more, unless there is an “arbitration by the Prime Minister to loosen the grip and give some breathing room to the Academy,” hopes Patrick Bloche, who finds this school map “unacceptable.”
In a letter to Gabriel Attal dated Thursday, Anne Hidalgo argues that “the demographic changes observed in Paris as well as nationally indeed offer a historic opportunity to reduce class sizes.” Paris has lost an average of 12,000 residents per year over the last decade. The right-wing opposition accuses Anne Hidalgo of being responsible for “the massive and ongoing exodus of families.”
