More than 850,000 teachers across France began the new academic year on 31 August amid the continuing consequences of a summer cyberattack targeting the Ministry of National Education. In several education districts, including Toulouse and Nantes, digital systems remain partially or fully unavailable, complicating student enrolment and the allocation of pupils to schools.
The Ministry has reported a major data breach. In mid-August, hackers claimed to have obtained personal data belonging to tens of thousands of teachers and students. In an effort to prevent further incidents, access to a number of systems was suspended. Although services had been restored in 28 of France’s 30 education districts by Friday, Toulouse and Nantes are expected to face “severely degraded” operating conditions.
Full restoration is expected to take approximately two weeks. School timetables will be issued in paper form, while some students may not be informed of their assigned school until mid-September.