Thankless task keeping the French within school framework (8)
I believe the answer is:
skeleton
'framework' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'thankless task keeping the french within school' is the wordplay.
'thankless task keeping' becomes 'sk' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'the french' becomes 'le' ('the' in French).
'within' is an insertion indicator.
'school' becomes 'eton' (famous UK public school).
'le' put into 'eton' is 'eleton'.
'sk'+'eleton'='SKELETON'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for skeleton that I've seen before include "This key fits many locks" , "one doesn't want found in cupboard" , "Reduced to essentials" , "Bare bones" , "Body frame" .)