Education. “Exhausted” students, classrooms over 30°C… why there is an urgent need to renovate school buildings

In June 2025, more than 2,200 schools closed due to a heatwave. The same thing happens again this fall, with the start of the 2025 school year postponed in the Var and Bouches-du-Rhône regions due to climate hazards . These are examples of the glaring inadequacy of tens of thousands of schools, middle schools, and high schools in the face of global warming and its consequences, according to a report published this Friday by the Ecological and Social Alliance (*).

Lack of curtains, heating that regularly breaks down, almost non-existent insulation, lack of ventilation... The group of NGOs and unions has revealed the responses from a survey carried out among more than 9,000 staff members, who testify to the teaching conditions made difficult by the dilapidated state of the buildings.

"Rooms located under the attic are uninhabitable, summer and winter. The insulation is catastrophic, and they have no openings. Temperatures regularly exceed 30°C," says a teacher at a high school in Villeurbanne (Rhône). "A broken window is patched up with a sheet of chipboard. The boiler regularly breaks down, the rooms are freezing in winter and a furnace in summer," says a teacher at a middle school in Cruas (Ardèche).

A primary school teacher in Besançon (Doubs) continues with the case of her school, where "renovation work is planned but has been postponed several times." "We were told that minor work (curtains, reflective panels, etc.) cannot be carried out in the meantime. My classroom is subject to temperature fluctuations that affect our health: the students are exhausted, sometimes they have headaches. And I am very exhausted too."

In detail, "95% of teachers say they encounter difficulties during heatwaves," laments Isabelle Vuillet, co-general secretary of CGT Éduc'action, and only 59% of teachers tell us that their playground is planted.

The survey conducted by the NGO group suggests that 20 to 30% of school buildings are not suitable for extreme heat. The reason: the vast majority of schools, middle schools, and high schools were built before 1980, the report points out. However, "the government lacks tools to diagnose school buildings in the face of climate change," denounces Caroline Chevé, secretary general of the FSU.

While the government has made renovation announcements in recent years, these have not materialized, according to NGOs, such as the budget cuts to the Green Fund earmarked for this purpose. The promised renovation of 40,000 schools by 2023 by Emmanuel Macron, as well as the comprehensive assessment of the establishments, have barely been implemented, according to the associations.

The Ecological and Social Alliance makes numerous proposals, but above all calls for massive state investment where local authorities lack resources, especially in rural or disadvantaged areas. It estimates the cost of adapting all French school buildings to climate change at five billion euros per year for 10 years. This is an ecological emergency, as schools represent 1.5% of France's greenhouse gas emissions, but also a health emergency , given the health risks posed by learning in overheated premises.

"Especially since the number of heatwave days will increase fivefold in a France at +2.7°C and tenfold in a France at +4°C," points out Coline Wiatrowski, co-federal secretary of SUD Education. "In the absence of ambitious renovations, public authorities are closing schools during heatwaves," she explains. "That's a lot less school days, especially in disadvantaged neighborhoods where the buildings are the most dilapidated, which increases social inequality."

(*) It brings together Attac, the Peasant Confederation, Education Sud-Solidaires, Greenpeace, the FSU, Friends of the Earth, Oxfam France and the CGT Educ'action.