French schools start new year in shadow of summer cyberattack
Teachers returned to work on Monday to prepare for la rentrée – France's annual back-to-school return after the summer holidays – but digital services remain restricted in parts of the country as students return Tuesday, following a data breach first detected in late July.
The Education Ministry revealed on 31 July that the breach had been identified six days earlier. In mid-August, hackers claimed to have obtained the personal data of tens of thousands of teachers and pupils.
Access to a number of digital tools was subsequently suspended as a precaution, adding an extra layer of difficulty for headteachers preparing for the return of pupils.
The ministry said on Friday evening that services had returned to normal in 28 of France's 30 education academies – the administrative regions responsible for running schools.
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Paper timetables in Toulouse and Nantes
Schools in Nantes in western France and Toulouse in the southwest remain affected, however, after being among the areas hardest hit.
In Toulouse, the ministry said access to email and professional applications would remain suspended "until further notice".
Karim Benmiloud, in charge of the Toulouse education authority, said full restoration of digital services was expected within around two weeks. Digital learning platforms, known in France as ENT systems, are due to be reactivated on 7 September.
The ministry has stressed that the preparation of class timetables has not been affected, although pupils in Toulouse will receive their schedules on paper.
Schools in the Nantes area may have to adopt similar measures. The ministry said only partial access to email was available, depending on the devices and settings being used.
"Email systems are still not working and access for teachers is extremely complicated," Joeffrey Renaud, a history and geography teacher in the Nantes academy and representative of the SNES-FSU union, said on Monday.
For Tuesday's return, he said teachers would be taking attendance with paper lists.
"It's 'Back to the Future'," he joked, in reference to the science fiction comedy hit movie.
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The disruption comes at the start of the final school year of President Emmanuel Macron's second term, a period that teaching unions have sharply criticised.
The SNES-FSU has described Macron's record on education as "catastrophic", with salaries now among unions' main concerns. They continue to demand higher pay for teachers and other education staff.
The government, however, is highlighting an improvement in recruitment after several years of teacher shortages. It says 98.5 percent of primary teaching posts have been filled, up from 92.1 percent last year, while the figure for secondary schools has risen from 90.6 percent to 96.1 percent.
Unions say the figures should be treated with caution, arguing they have been boosted by changes to teacher recruitment exams this year.
For most schools, digital systems are now back online. But in Toulouse and Nantes, the new term is beginning with a decidedly old-school fallback.