French teachers vow to ‘teach difficult subjects’ after colleague’s murder

Rallies expected across country in defiant reaction to beheading of Samuel Paty after showing pupils controversial Charlie Hebdo cartoons

Shocked French teachers vowed to continue encouraging their pupils' critical spirit" by raising contested subjects after an Islamic terrorist beheaded a secondary school teacher who showed his students caricatures of the Prophet as part of a freedom of speech discussion.

Representatives of teaching unions met the education minister Jean-Michel Blanquer and the prime minister Jean Castex on Saturday, hours after the death of 47-year-old history and geography teacher Samuel Paty.