Clara Bénichou

Education Correspondent, The Continental Times

Clara covers education for The Continental Times and has reported from more than a dozen countries.

With 3,100 Posts Unfilled, France Turns to 15-Minute Interviews to Staff Its Classrooms

In the Paris suburbs, school districts are hiring contract teachers at job fairs after a decade of falling applications for the civil service exam, leaving some pupils without a math teacher for weeks.

Oct. 11, 2026 6 MIN READ

A public school in Saint-Denis, north of Paris, in the Créteil education district.

Across Portugal, Expectant Mothers Check Which Maternity Ward Is Open Before Heading to the Hospital

A chronic shortage of obstetricians has turned weekend closures of emergency maternity units into routine, and a government hotline into the first stop for women in labor.

Oct. 7, 2026 6 MIN READ

The emergency entrance of a public hospital in the Lisbon area.

France Took the HPV Shot Into Middle Schools. Three Years On, Vaccination Has Nearly Doubled.

Coverage among 12-year-olds in the Lyon region rose from 41 percent to 78 percent after nurses began offering the vaccine in classrooms, a result health officials want to repeat with other shots.

Oct. 7, 2026 5 MIN READ

A middle school in Lyon, where mobile vaccination teams have offered the HPV vaccine to pupils since 2023.