The French overseas department of Mayotte, an island territory in the Indian Ocean and a former French colony, is failing to provide education to all children, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. A devastating cyclone in December 2024 worsened longstanding deficiencies in Mayotte's education system that reconstruction efforts have not effectively addressed one year later.
France: Overseas Territory's Education Barriers
Address Longstanding Inequalities in Mayotte
The 73-page report, "Exceptional Failure: France's Persistent Education Shortcomings in Mayotte," finds that Mayotte's municipalities often impose significant and arbitrary barriers to school enrollment, including by demanding documentation not required by law. Children who are enrolled often attend overcrowded schools ill-equipped to meet their basic needs, such as access to drinking water, sanitation, nutritious food, and a safe learning environment. Children living in informal settlements known as bangas, are particularly affected, as are children from migrant families.
"It is shocking that thousands of children in Mayotte are denied access to school, while those who do attend face substandard learning conditions," said Elvire Fondacci, France advocacy officer at Human Rights Watch. "All children in Mayotte should be able to experience their right to education on an equal footing with children elsewhere in France."
Mayotte is 1 of 13 overseas territories of France, all former French colonies. It is France's poorest department and one of the most disadvantaged parts of the European Union. More than 75 percent of the population lives below the poverty line. The authorities have struggled to humanely manage arrivals of migrants from the nearby island nation of Comoros and asylum seekers from Central and East African countries.
Human Rights Watch interviewed more than 40 children, as well as parents, government officials, teachers, academic researchers, and members of associations that support children.
Children and their families face burdensome and unlawful enrollment requirements in many municipalities that delay or prevent children from going to school. Some municipalities only accept birth certificates issued within the previous three months. Others have required current proof of social security or other social benefit documents, parents' and sometimes landlords' recent tax bills, or even required landlords to come in person to municipal offices. These barriers are in part an effort to manage enrollment rates, local officials told Human Rights Watch.
The French government's neglect of Mayotte is an ongoing legacy of colonialism that has left the island persistently underdeveloped. Mayotte's education system has for years had a shortage of classrooms and teachers. Mayotte has the worst educational outcomes in France. And teaching is often inadequate for most children for whom French is a second language.
To cope with the lack of classrooms, many schools operate on an alternating schedule, meaning that children attend class for only part of the day, sometimes receiving fewer hours of instruction than required under national standards. Some municipalities have also reportedly resisted building new schools, fearing they would primarily benefit the children of migrants.
Children also face danger on their way to and from school. Groups of local youths throwing stones target school buses, often motivated by rivalries between neighborhoods. The attacks discourage some students who have no other means of transport from attending school.
Unlike in mainland France, where hot lunches are the norm, most schools in Mayotte offer only a snack, which for many students is their only meal of the day. Children whose families cannot afford to pay for the snack go without food.
"If you haven't paid for the school lunch, you don't eat," a boy who was interviewed said. "It's really hard to go to school when you're hungry."
A devastating cyclone in December 2024 inflicted widespread damage to homes, schools, and other infrastructure, compounding the pressures on Mayotte's education system. The islands have also faced a prolonged drought, leading to water shortages that have sometimes caused schools to close.
Under French law, education is free, compulsory between the ages of 3 and 16, and should be available to all children on French soil. Yet, a 2023 University of Paris Nanterre study found that as many as 9 percent of Mayotte's school-age children, about 9,000, were not in school.
Mayotte also has the highest population growth rate in France, estimated at nearly 4 percent a year, contributing to severe strain on housing, education, and public services. Thousands of children in Mayotte live in makeshift dwellings lacking access to running water, electricity, or sanitation. Mayotte's underdevelopment and resulting socioeconomic disparities are symptoms of France's failure to address the impacts of its colonial legacy.
National and local authorities have not effectively addressed the insecure housing, inadequate food, health, and social protection, and unemployment faced by many of the islands' inhabitants.
Laws that apply only in Mayotte, including restrictive citizenship provisions, further marginalize children and families, many of whom have lived there all their lives.
France has an obligation to ensure the basic needs of everyone in its territory and guarantee the right to education for all children without discrimination.
Municipalities in Mayotte should strictly adhere to the provisions of the national law on school enrollment by requiring only the documents the law specifies. And the prefecture-the representative of the national government in Mayotte-should strictly enforce compliance, Human Rights Watch said.
French authorities and legislators should repeal laws that apply only to the territory and that have harmful repercussions on fundamental rights, including for children, such as those for residence permits as well as social and labor protections. Restrictions on access to citizenship should be revised to remove arbitrary barriers for children accessing their fundamental rights.
"The French government should urgently ensure that every child in Mayotte can attend school full time and in dignified conditions, with access to food, water, and safety," Fondacci said.
