Parents' Associations act worldwide against AEFE Decisions – Our Collective Action before the Administrative Tribunal
An unprecedented movement of unity and solidarity is underway across the AEFE network, and we need your support.
For the first time, several independent parents' associations from around the world have joined forces as a collective to take action against the financial crisis affecting French education abroad — a crisis for which families are bearing the cost.
What is happening?
Since 2016, the French State has been withdrawing financially from the AEFE, in particular by transferring the employer’s contribution to civil service pensions for its staff without providing adequate compensation. The solution chosen: make parents pay. School fees have continued to rise in recent years.
In December 2025, the AEFE Board of Directors took things a step further by deciding that families would finance, through school fees, 35% of these pension contributions in 2026 and 50% thereafter. This decision further increases the burden on families who are already facing sometimes unsustainable fee hikes.
Why are we taking action?
Under French law, only a law passed by Parliament can introduce a tax. Our associations and their legal advisors consider that this contribution is, by its nature, a tax, and that by voting for it, the AEFE has exceeded its powers.
This is why five associations and federations — CAPE Maroc 🇲🇦, CIPL London 🇬🇧, FCPE Brussels 🇧🇪, FCPE Lisbonne 🇵🇹 and UCPE/FCPE Maroc 🇲🇦 — have filed a joint appeal with the Administrative Tribunal of Montreuil to have this decision reversed.
Why do we need you?
This legal action involves significant costs: lawyers’ fees, court costs, and coordination expenses between associations in several countries. Our collective was formed urgently due to the very short appeal deadlines, and we cannot fight this battle without the financial support of the families concerned.
Every contribution, no matter how small, strengthens our ability to defend the interests of all parents in the network. This action is intended to benefit the greatest number of people.
Support our fundraising to defend the rights of our children to an accessible education in French
Please feel free to share this message with others, including families at schools in other countries. Unity among all parents is our strength in defending our interests and those of our children.
In focus
On 18 December 2025, the AEFE Board of Directors adopted three decisions with particularly serious consequences for families at EGDs (Directly Managed Establishments), partnered establishments and accredited schools. Decision No. 28/2025 introduces a new contribution towards the employer’s share of civil service pensions for directly managed establishments, set at 35% from January 2026 and rising to 50% in 2027. Decision No. 29/2025 does the same for partnered establishments, and Decision No. 30/2025 sets out the new arrangements for the financial participation of accredited establishments in the network’s operating costs. (See our article on the subject.)
These measures were adopted under politically exceptional circumstances: 18 votes in favour to 16 against, given the Agency’s questionable governance which leaves government representatives with the majority of seats. The result nevertheless reflects massive opposition even within the Agency’s own governing body.
Civil service pensions are a structural responsibility of the French State. Transferring this cost to families at EGDs means asking parents to fund a debt that the State has incurred towards its own civil servants.
POSITION OF THE CLAIMANT ASSOCIATIONS
The claimant associations call on all parents at EGDs to mobilise, to inform consular authorities, and to support the legal proceedings, so that the courts can rule before the announced increases — up to 25% in some establishments according to projections — become an irreversible reality for thousands of French and French-speaking families around the world.
L452-2 Code de l’Education : L’agence a pour objet […] D’assurer, en faveur des enfants français établis hors de France, les missions de service public relatives à l’éducation ; […]
D’aider les familles des élèves français ou étrangers à supporter les frais liés à l’enseignement […] de ceux-ci, tout en veillant à la stabilisation des frais de scolarité ;
Today, the Agency is no longer fulfilling its legal missions!
