To avoid the closure of a class due to lack of pupils, the parents of a French municipality have symbolically enrolled 15 sheep in the primary school of Crets and Belledonne, at the foot of the Alps.

The students of Saute-Mouton, Baaaaah-Bete, and Panurge, among others, are now on the school list. The school learned in March that one of the eleven classes would probably have to be closed in September after a slight fall in effectiveness, from 266 to 261 students.

According to Gaëlle Laval of the parent committee and one of the organizers of the protest, “children get into trouble here, but National Education is not concerned about the arguments in the field, just about numbers.”

This morning a farmer from the neighborhood with fifty sheep and his dog came to the school. Fifteen sheep, with a birth certificate as proof, were registered “officially” in the presence of the pupils, their parents and the teachers.

“We don’t have to close any classrooms like that,” laughed Gaelle Laval, who acknowledges “he wants to mobilize people with humor” and to prevent a “mess” in the school where the municipality has invested heavily in the past year.

The parents of the students also point out that if a class is closed, the smaller classes should start the new school year with a clear surplus of children.