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Tens of thousands of students protest across France over dilapidated schools, overcrowding and teacher shortages, with over 5,000 arrests and clashes in more than 1,200 high schools.
Tens of thousands of students and supporters protested across France this week over dilapidated schools, classroom overcrowding and teacher shortages, in a movement that began in the poor Paris suburbs and spread nationwide.
French School Protests Escalate Nationwide
More than 5,000 people were arrested as protests raged at over 1,200 high schools, with police using tear gas and rubber bullets in some cases. At Lycee Le Corbusier in Aubervilliers, a suburb north of Paris in the Seine-Saint-Denis department, protesters said schools in poor neighborhoods like theirs faced the worst conditions.
Maisa, a 17-year-old who wants to be an English teacher, said: Last year I took the high school French exam without a French teacher, and teachers have a huge impact. Interior Minister Laurent Nunez called it a climate of unacceptable violence and called for order. Some protesters were seriously hurt with eye injuries, broken teeth and blows to the head.
Amelia, 15, held a sign reading Our address should not decide our future and said she wanted the same rights as students elsewhere in the country. She added: The education authority is not investing enough in the suburbs. It is classist and racist. The demonstrations and blockades began last week and have become a political flashpoint for the government, which announced unpopular spending cuts in its 2027 budget on Thursday.
The education budget is set to increase by a below-inflation 1.7 percent to 65.53 billion euros, excluding teacher pensions. The education ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Education Minister Edouard Geffray said education remained a priority and the below-inflation increase was due to population decline. The protests started in the Parisian suburbs where poverty is high, then spread to Paris and other towns including Marseille, Strasbourg, Tours and Lille.
Schools Struggle With Staff Shortages
In Seine-Saint-Denis, two-thirds of high schools took part in Thursday protests, the CGT union said. At Lycee Le Corbusier, classes including maths, humanities, English and sport have been canceled since the academic year began due to teacher shortages, according to Karima Kara Ali, an elected parent representative. Youth, teachers and parents in four towns complained of unsanitary conditions and chronic staff shortages including nurses and social workers.
Louise Paternoster of the CGT education union in Seine-Saint-Denis said the area lacks adequate resources. Two-thirds of schools in the department have unfilled teacher positions, per a union survey. She said: Our students are losing out on study time. Some schools do not have drinking water.
We are not equal to other departments. She blamed cuts of 3,256 teacher positions nationwide in 2026. In Pantin, teacher Dilan Roche joined students protesting outside their school to support their demands and protect them from police. She said: What they wrote on banners, we wrote in a letter to the local education authority: overcrowded classes, no nurses, no social workers, which is problematic for students with learning difficulties, many living in precarity.
Education Spending Stagnates Nationwide
While France ranks mid-table among OECD countries for education spending, average expenditure per secondary student has barely changed over the last decade, at 11,660 euros in 2024 versus 11,910 euros in 2010, per education ministry data. The last comparable nationwide high school protest demanding more funding was in the 1990s. That movement followed the government expanding access to the baccalaureat without sufficient resources, said Professor Clemence Cardon-Quint of Paul Valery University, who researches education funding.
It won more funding, but spending per student later stagnated. Cardon-Quint said students and teachers now handle extra duties including Parcoursup, the 2018 university admissions system criticized as opaque and discriminatory. She added: In a period of budgetary restraint, it is more difficult to reduce inequalities. Ulysse Rabate, a political scientist at Paris 8 University, said the protests show how France's marginalized urban neighborhoods are increasingly influencing national politics.
He said: When there is a collapse of the public service, of public education, those who feel it the most, and the most violently, are those at bottom.
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ChannelNewsAsia:High school students in Paris' deprived suburbs spark national protest movementThis story was compiled and edited by the HeadTopics newsroom and HT AI from the reports above.
Teacher Shortages Education Budget Cuts Seine-Saint-Denis Student Protests
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