Schools in Europe: dilapidated buildings, toilets without running water and a shortage of teachers – the students’ protest

The protests were* also sparked by the physical condition of the buildings. Students reported structural problems and even the presence of rats in the school buildings. During the June heatwave, the temperatures in the classrooms sparked further protests, just as the final exams were taking place.

According to OECD data from the 2025 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), 45 per cent of French pupils attend schools where headteachers report that teacher shortages are hindering teaching, compared with an OECD average of 39 per cent. This figure is an improvement on the 67 per cent recorded in 2022, but remains high. Furthermore, 25 per cent of headteachers report infrastructure shortcomings, including problems with heating, air conditioning and lighting.

According to Misson, more resources are needed, particularly in the most challenging neighbourhoods, where schools should be able to benefit from smaller class sizes and additional teaching hours. The measures taken so far to encourage teachers to work in less sought-after areas – including pay rises and incentives for relocation – have not fully resolved the problem.

The situation is particularly critical in Greece, where ageing buildings are compounded by staff shortages and significant disparities between schools.

63.8 per cent of school buildings were built before 1985, and nearly three in ten date from before 1960. According to OECD data relating to PISA 2025, 47 per cent of 15-year-old Greek pupils attend schools where headteachers report that shortcomings in physical infrastructure hinder teaching, at least to some extent. 46 per cent attend schools that report a shortage of teaching staff.

The problems manifest themselves in incidents relating to building safety and essential services. In April 2026, at a primary school in Athens, in the Ambelokipi neighbourhood, part of the ceiling in the external toilets collapsed shortly before lessons were due to begin. Parents’ representatives had reported cracks, damp, damaged surfaces and broken taps. The same school had previously experienced a gas leak in the flooded boiler room.

In Crete, in May 2026, a lower secondary school attended by 240 pupils was left without water for three days, making it impossible to use the toilets as normal. And five years on from the 2021 earthquake in Arkalochori, also in Crete, around 700 pupils are still attending lessons in prefabricated buildings.

The heat is also a recurring problem: many classrooms lack air conditioning and even properly maintained fans. When temperatures rise above 30 degrees – as parents’ representatives point out – it becomes extremely difficult to hold lessons as normal.

Argyro Karakitsou, aged 17, describes the impact of these shortcomings: a final-year pupil at a state secondary school in the Grava school complex in Athens, which was temporarily closed in October 2026 following fears of a possible gas leak.

“Renovation work can start and then remain unfinished,” he says. At his school, there have been problems with insulation and water seeping through the ceilings; the toilets have been refurbished, but they have no lighting.

Added to this are the unfilled teaching posts. ‘Sometimes a subject isn’t taught for the first two or three months of the school year. If a teacher is absent due to ill health, it can happen that a supply teacher isn’t appointed until they return,’ he explains.

The student also highlights another aspect: the habit of putting up with shortcomings. ‘We’ve become used to many of these things. We almost take it for granted that this is how schools work.’

The discontent led to protests. On 8 October, the Athens Students’ Coordination Committee organised sit-ins, walkouts and assemblies, calling for vacant posts to be filled, safe buildings, modern laboratories and adequate sports facilities.

The government has launched a refurbishment programme which, in its second phase, will see 100 million euros allocated to 238 schools, as part of a wider plan aimed at improving around 2,500 schools. However, the issue of inequality remains unresolved: whilst some schools are benefiting from these investments, others continue to struggle with inadequate facilities and insufficient resources.

In Spain, the problem mainly concerns temporary classrooms and the adaptation of buildings to summer temperatures.

Before the pandemic, around 50,000 pupils were attending lessons in prefabricated buildings. In Catalonia, the situation has improved, but thousands of children are still studying in this sort of environment.

According to figures from the Catalan government, between 2021 and 2025 the number of schools with prefabricated classrooms fell from 421 to 377, whilst the number of temporary units decreased from 1,006 to 915. This is the case at the school in Viladecans, in Baix Llobregat, where pupils attend lessons in 12 prefabricated structures.

The heat presents a further challenge. Decree 486/1997, which regulates conditions in the workplace and also applies to educational establishments, stipulates that temperatures should be between 17 and 27 degrees in rooms used for sedentary activities. During the summer, however, temperatures in many Spanish classrooms exceed 30 degrees.

In June, the Council of Ministers agreed to allocate 200 million euros from the National Energy Efficiency Fund to improve the energy performance of school buildings, including air-conditioning systems.

According to estimates by the organisation Equitat, formerly the Bofill Foundation, bringing the air-conditioning systems in the 1,200 Catalan schools deemed inadequate in this respect up to standard would cost around 1.3 billion euros. This figure gives an indication of the scale of the work required to adapt existing facilities to the new climatic conditions.

The problem of high temperatures is also evident in Austria. A scientific survey carried out by the Austrian Institute of Technology during the heatwave of June 2026, involving over 1,500 pupils and teachers, found that 88 per cent of those surveyed considered the temperature in school buildings to be a source of discomfort. Three-quarters of the participants reported difficulty concentrating, tiredness and exhaustion, whilst more than half complained of headaches.

Measurements carried out by the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, at a school in the capital had already highlighted the problem in May and June 2025. Temperatures had exceeded 27 degrees on 25 days and 30 degrees on as many as 16 days. In some cases, classrooms were already too hot in the morning, with temperatures around 28 degrees. Carbon dioxide levels had also repeatedly exceeded 1,400 parts per million.

Elisabeth Gutenberg, headteacher at the Maroltingergasse secondary school in Vienna, explains the impact on teaching. “Every year we see how difficult lessons become during the hottest months, not only for the pupils but also for the teachers,” she said. “Sometimes the classrooms get so hot that the children suffer from circulatory problems.”

In Romania, some of the most pressing issues relate to sanitation facilities. On 9 October 2026, the government approved 7.849 million lei – approximately 1.6 million euros – for sanitation works in 97 state schools across 16 districts.

The funds are earmarked for institutions with inadequate facilities, including outdoor toilets and premises without running water or connections to the sewerage system. The works were due to benefit from funding already allocated in 2025, but had not been carried out or completed by the end of the year.

The incident also highlights the pace of the administrative process: the school year began on 7 September, whilst approval of the new funding was granted on 9 October.

The problem is not limited to toilet facilities. At the start of the 2026–2027 school year, the Minister for Education, Mihai Dimian, reported that around 700 schools were facing ongoing renovation work, fire safety approvals yet to be obtained, or a shortage of space due to rising pupil numbers. According to the minister, these situations affected around 3 per cent of pupils.

Conditions can vary considerably even within the same area. In the village of Balta Arsă, in the district of Botoșani, over 80 children at the nursery and primary school started the school year in a building equipped with interactive whiteboards and digital tools, but which still has outdoor toilets. The local council explained that the installation of indoor toilets has been postponed pending the construction of a new school, for which a project costing around 3 million euros has been submitted.

The contrast between technological modernisation and a lack of essential services is one of the most striking aspects of infrastructural inequalities. An institution may have up-to-date digital tools at its disposal without yet being able to guarantee adequate physical conditions.

According to Ion-Ovidiu Pânișoară, a professor of Education at the University of Bucharest, the difficulties facing the Romanian school system are also linked to chronic underfunding and a lack of continuity in public policy.

‘A child who arrives at a school in appalling condition learns that school doesn’t matter,’ he observes. ‘Everyone tells them that education is important, but the conditions tell them the opposite.’

The lecturer also drew attention to the situation facing teachers, who face heavy workloads, unattractive salaries and a lack of social recognition. To improve the system, he argues, it is not enough simply to introduce new reforms: long-term investment, greater support for teachers and a specific commitment to reducing the gap between urban and rural schools are needed.

In Bulgaria, too, the condition of school buildings reflects regional disparities. According to the OECD report *Education and Skills in Bulgaria*, published in June 2025, more than half of the country’s schools have fewer than 200 pupils. Small schools, particularly in rural and remote areas, face greater difficulties in securing resources.

A 2020 UNICEF study cited in the report highlights that some rural schools continue to face problems with heating during the winter and lack indoor toilets, sports facilities or science laboratories.

In large cities, however, the main challenge is a lack of space. The growth in the urban population has contributed to overcrowded classrooms and the widespread adoption of a two-shift system. In Sofia, more than half of all pupils attend school under this system.

According to OECD data relating to PISA, 24 per cent of Bulgarian pupils attend schools where headteachers report infrastructure shortcomings that hinder teaching, at least to some extent. This percentage remained unchanged between PISA 2022 and PISA 2025.

The government has invested in the modernisation of facilities. On 30 September 2026, it announced the completion of over 2,000 laboratories dedicated to science, technology, engineering and mathematics, as part of a programme involving 2,271 state and local authority schools.

However, difficulties remain regarding the upkeep and quality of the premises. At the start of 2025, according to the Ministry of Education and Science, 865 schools were in need of repairs. By the summer of that same year, 624 schools were still in need of repairs.

Protests by students at a vocational technical school in Varna have shown that these issues are not confined to rural areas. The students have raised concerns about the use of specialist classrooms and equipment, the departure of a number of teachers, and problems relating to the school’s funding and management.

In Plovdiv, however, the reopening of a sixth-form college specialising in the humanities following renovation work has sparked fresh controversy. Parents have published photographs of classrooms so cramped that there is little room to move between the desks. According to reports, some rooms have been partitioned off to create more classrooms, with the risk that this may fail to meet the requirements set out in national legislation.

Whilst there are significant differences between countries, the picture that emerges is one of education systems grappling with common challenges: buildings designed for climatic conditions different from those of today, inadequate maintenance, staff shortages and wide disparities between regions.

The issue of infrastructure is closely linked to that of equal opportunities. In Romania, according to OECD data from PISA 2025, the gap in science results between 15-year-old students from advantaged and disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds stands at 122 points. In France, it stands at 100 points, compared with an OECD average of 85 and 71 points in Spain.

These figures do not prove that the condition of buildings is the direct cause of differences in academic performance, but they do show the extent to which educational inequalities remain a structural problem.

The issue is also political. In Greece, the programme to refurbish state schools, supported by the Onassis Foundation with a donation of 160 million euros, aims to upgrade schools located mainly in areas facing socio-economic difficulties. However, the project has fuelled a debate on access: according to critics, selecting pupils through entrance exams risks turning the improvement of facilities into an opportunity reserved for only a section of the school-going population.

Essentially, the issue is not merely about renovating a few schools, but about ensuring adequate standards for all pupils. As the Romanian professor Pânișoară points out, the effects of decisions on education are not immediately apparent. ‘If cuts are made today, the consequences may not become apparent straight away. But they will be seen in ten or fifteen years’ time.’

The protests in France and the demonstrations in other countries thus bring back into focus a question concerning the future of European education systems: how credible is it to regard education as a priority when pupils are still having to cope with unfit classrooms, inadequate toilets and lessons without teachers?

*This article forms part of the European collaborative journalism project “Pulse” and was produced with contributions from Theo Anders (Der Standard, Austria), Kostas Zafeiropoulos (EfSyn, Greece), Adelina Mărăcine (HotNews, Romania), Desislava Koleva (Mediapool, Bulgaria), and Lola García-Ajofrín (El Confidencial, Spain).