Fact check: Where in Europe has the longest school summer holidays?

euronews (in English)

President Emmanuel Macron said that he wants to review the amount of time French pupils get off for the summer, claiming that France has longer holidays than other countries. How does it compare to the rest of Europe?

Transcript

00:00Where in Europe has the longest school holidays?

00:08French President Emmanuel Macron caused a stir last week by saying

00:12he wanted to reopen the debate on the length of school holidays.

00:15France has longer school holidays than many other countries.

00:19So the question we can ask our children is whether we should

00:22review the school holidays to be able to reduce the number of weeks

00:26that we have to spend in order to learn better.

00:45French students have eight weeks off for the summer, according to Euridice,

00:49the European Commission-funded education information network.

00:53But the data shows that at least 32 other European countries,

00:56or sometimes regions within countries,

00:59have longer summer school holidays than France this year.

01:02Some countries' numbers can differ slightly depending on the region,

01:05grade or individual school.

01:07Those with the most time off are Bulgarian primary school students,

01:11who get between 13 and 15 weeks off,

01:14Italian students, who get between 11 and 14 weeks,

01:17and upper secondary Icelandic students,

01:20who get more than 13 weeks, according to Euridice.

01:23At the bottom end of the table are Germany, with just over six weeks,

01:26the Netherlands and Liechtenstein with six,

01:29and Denmark with just over five.

01:31Teachers in France have accused Macron of making the comments

01:34to distract from the real issues facing schools,

01:38such as a lack of teachers, stagnant pay and poor working conditions.

01:42Some have even claimed that when talking about re-evaluating school holidays,

01:46successive governments have tended to side with the tourism lobby

01:50rather than the interests of teachers and pupils.

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