Education 2 min read 3h ago · Updated August 25, 2026 at 01:13 UTC

France to Survey Ten Million Pupils on Sexual Violence

French Education Minister Édouard Geffray has announced that ten million school pupils will be surveyed about possible sexual violence committed against them.
Geffray warned in a regional newspaper interview that the results 'risk being seismic', indicating an expectation that the scale of unreported abuse may be far greater than
The timeline, methodology, and support provisions for the survey had not been made public at the time of the minister's announcement.

France's education minister, Édouard Geffray, has announced that ten million school pupils across the country will be questioned about whether they have experienced sexual violence. The disclosure was made in an interview given by Geffray to several regional newspapers, and would represent one of the most extensive child safeguarding exercises ever undertaken within the French school system.

Minister warns of 'seismic' findings

Geffray did not conceal his apprehension about what the survey might uncover. The minister stated that the results "risk being seismic" — a choice of language that suggests he anticipates the exercise will expose a scale of sexual violence against pupils significantly larger than any figures currently acknowledged. The warning came from the minister himself, and was not attributed to an independent assessment or external body.

Key details remain unresolved

The announcement sets out the ambition of the initiative but leaves unanswered a number of central questions. No information was made public, at the time of the interview, regarding when the questioning will begin, the methodology to be used, or what support structures will be available to pupils who disclose abuse during the process. Those gaps mean the practical implementation of the survey remains, for now, uncertain.

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Should the exercise proceed on the scale announced, France would be placing itself among the countries adopting the most systematic approach to identifying sexual violence against children within educational settings. What action the data may prompt, however, was not addressed in the minister's remarks.

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