To prevent the closure of their local school, parents in the Moselle region of eastern France have enrolled four sheep as students.
The school, serving the villages of Hermelange, Nitting, and Voyer, faced losing a class due to declining enrollment. With only 94 students projected for the upcoming school year, they fell short of the number required to maintain all five classes.
Determined to save their school, resourceful parents hit upon a novel solution: bolstering the student body with some woolly classmates. By officially registering four local sheep, the school bumped up its enrollment to 98, ensuring all five classes could continue.
“The parents filled in the registration files as required for each new pupil, with dates of birth and parents’ names, and forwarded them to the town hall, before they were sent to the National Education Department,” reported French media outlet BFMTV.
The four new registrants are John Deere, Valériane Deschamps, Phil Deschamps and Marguerite Duprès.
The sheep will be treated like any other student, with their names on the roll call and access to the schoolyard thanks to a special municipal decree.
