Mayotte's Future Depends on Education, Not More Restrictions on Migrant Rights

Click to expand Image Children walk past modular classrooms built after Cyclone Chido, at the nursery and elementary school of Majicavo-Lamir village on the French overseas territory of Mayotte, on August 18, 2025. © 2025 Marine Gachet/AFP via Getty Images Students return to school this week in France’s overseas department of Mayotte. For most, the start of the academic year is a return to overcrowded schools that are often ill-equipped to meet their basic needs, and an education system that continues to fail thousands of children. A devastating cyclone in December 2024 worsened already persistent deficiencies in Mayotte’s education system. Efforts to rebuild classrooms have not successfully addressed these challenges, and many schools continue to operate on rotation systems. Even before the cyclone, thousands of children were excluded from education, a consequence of burdensome enrolment procedures and other barriers. At the start of the 2025 school year, the Mayotte Observatory on School Exclusion found that more than 15,000 school-age children were not in school, continuing a worrying upward trend. Others attend schools in conditions that fall short of basic standards, including