The trade unions FNEC (France), FLC CGIL (Italy), UCU (UK), NEU (UK), FECCOO (Spain), STES Intersindical (Spain), FENPROF (Portugal) and CGSP (Belgium) met on Friday 30 October to review the state of education in their respective countries.
In France, the defence budget stands at 450 billion euros. Meanwhile, school roofs are collapsing, classrooms are bursting at the seams, there is a shortage of teachers, and 130,000 students cannot find a place at university.
In Italy, salaries for Education and Research, among the lowest in the public sector and in Europe, grow by 12% against inflation at 25.67% (2022/27), while precarious workers in schools are 302 thousand in the 25/26 school year. Meanwhile, the Meloni government continues to cut public spending and, while young people take to the streets, limits the right to strike and demonstrate with as many as seven authoritarian decrees in four years.
In the UK, education has suffered immensely during austerity, with real-terms schools funding falling by billions and teacher pay declining by more than a fifth since 2010. More than 30,000 jobs have been lost in the university sector over the past few years, while further education lecturers continue to endure low pay and excessive workload. An additional £36 billion per year is now at risk of being taken from education and other stretched public services to meet the UK government’s commitment to spend 3.5 per cent of GDP on defence by 2035.
In Spain, public education suffers from chronic underfunding. In 2026, investment stands at 4.48% of GDP, below the 6% recommended internationally. The number of pupils requiring additional educational support has risen by 75% in six years, without a corresponding increase in resources. Education unions demand greater investment, smaller classes, more staff, decent salaries and better working conditions. Meanwhile, defence spending exceeds €35 billion, around 2% of GDP. Trade unions call on education workers to join the 11 November general strike to defend public services, fight precarious employment and demand affordable housing.
In Portugal, chronic underfunding of education undermines its quality and fuels a severe teacher shortage. While public services remain underfunded and wages lag behind the rising cost of living, military procurement exceeds €850 million. Meanwhile, house prices have risen almost four times faster than wages over the past decade. As young people protest peacefully for their right to housing, the government responds with police force.
In Belgium, budgetary austerity policies are being carried out by all components of the state, slashing public services and social protection. However, this does not prevent the government from engaging in military reinvestment with the purchase of new fighter jets. Forty years ago, the country's military budget was a fifth of that of education, today it is close to half.
These austerity and militarisation policies pursued by our governments have led, at the beginning of this school year, to mass mobilisations in several countries, where students, pupils and teachers are seeking to change the course of events.
They have also led to strikes and demonstrations, in which our trade unions are actively involved.
In this context, we express our support for mobilisations taking place in our respective countries aimed at denouncing the diversion of resources from education and public services towards the defence budget. And in particular, the initiatives on 20 November, the International Day of Mobilisation, with its five objectives :
1. Antimilitarism and an end to rearmament
2. Opposition to austerity and accessible education
3. Social rights and ecological transition
4. Decent work and economic autonomy
5. Defence of democracy
Funding for our public schools and universities, not for war.