Europe 1 / Photo credits: Benjamin Polge / Hans Lucas / Hans Lucas via AFP 5:44 p.m., February 6, 2024

The Châteldon school, in Puy-de-Dôme, is a symbol of the risk of class closures in small towns and villages. While three students are missing for this establishment to maintain its three classes, the parents of the students brought... three donkeys into the playground to denounce this minimum threshold.

The parents of students at the George-Sand school in Châteldon, in Puy-de-Dôme, really want the establishment to retain its three classes (nursery, CP-CE1-CE2, CM1-CM2) next year. As reported by France 3 Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, the school in this village of less than 800 people is in fact threatened with losing one of its teachers due to an insufficient number of students: three students are missing for avoid closing one of the classes.

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It is to protest against this possible closure that parents are mobilizing this week in front of the establishment. On Monday, they notably decided to bring three donkeys into the playground to compensate for the absence of the three necessary students.

Learning difficulties if a class is deleted

A symbolic action, of course, since we must count on the registration of three young humans next year so that the class does not close its doors. “That worries us a lot (...) If we have a class closure, we will end up with two classes of 25 students with four levels per class,” one of the parents confides to France 3, emphasizing learning difficulties in such conditions.

A breach has nevertheless been spotted by parents, who are making themselves heard these days. The threshold to be reached could indeed be respected, which goes against the rectorate's projections. “They announced a class closure on an enrollment basis which is false, which has been corrected,” underlines another parent, explaining that she and her counterparts had chosen to “make a little noise” this week to make their demands heard.

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According to France 3, they are also threatening to block the establishment if the Ministry of National Education does not manage to resolve the situation.