A protest movement that began outside a high school in the Paris suburbs has spread across France, closing hundreds of schools and bringing thousands of students into the streets to demand better-funded schools, more teachers and safer, more equitable conditions for learning.
The demonstrations began in September at Lycée Saint-Exupéry in Créteil, where students joined teachers protesting staff shortages and inadequate resources.
Within weeks, blockades and demonstrations had spread from the Paris region to cities including Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Strasbourg, Nantes and Toulouse.
By Friday, roughly 400 schools had been closed or partially disrupted, according to French authorities. More than 5,000 people, most of them teenagers, had been arrested since Monday as some demonstrations turned violent, according to Rueters. Riot police have used tear gas, while protesters have set fire to rubbish bins and other objects and, in some cases, attacked property. At least 65 education workers and hundreds of students and police officers have been injured, according to government figures.
But beneath the scenes of confrontation is a broader complaint about the condition of France’s public education system
Students have pointed to overcrowded classrooms, crumbling school buildings, inadequate heating and cooling, and shortages of teachers, nurses and other support staff. The French Education Ministry has said that nearly 10 percent of teaching hours in public secondary schools went untaught during the 2024-25 school year, with a substantial share attributed to the failure to find substitute teachers, according to French media outlet Le Monde.
In some schools, students say they have spent months without teachers in key subjects. Others describe classes of more than 30 students and buildings that become difficult to use during periods of extreme heat. Students have also criticized Parcoursup, the centralized university-application system, which many say adds to the pressure surrounding access to higher education.
The protests come after years of concern among teachers’ unions about staffing and funding. The government’s proposed budget cuts have added to those tensions, while France prepares for a presidential election next year.
Teachers’ unions have now announced that they will join students in a nationwide mobilisation, saying that the students’ demands overlap with grievances educators have raised for years.
The government has acknowledged that some of the complaints are legitimate. Education Minister Édouard Geffray has met student representatives and announced a consultation platform intended to collect proposals for reform. Student organisations, however, said the meeting produced no concrete measures and called for further demonstrations.
The movement has no single national programme. Demands vary between schools, but calls for more teachers, greater investment, smaller classes, repairs to school buildings and improved support services have become common. Some students have also linked their demands to broader concerns over inequality and the role that family income and neighborhood play in educational outcomes.
Spillover into French elections
The protests are unfolding just months before France’s presidential election, adding a political dimension to a dispute that began with complaints about conditions inside schools. The first round of voting is scheduled for April 18, 2027, with a runoff on May 2.
The timing puts education, public spending and the government’s handling of social unrest into a broader campaign environment in which parties are already positioning themselves for the contest to replace President Emmanuel Macron.
The government has sought to distinguish between the students’ demands and the violence that has accompanied some demonstrations. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has convened emergency meetings as the unrest has spread, while Education Minister Édouard Geffray has argued that students’ concerns about resources and school conditions deserve to be heard.
The protests have also become a point of political confrontation ahead of next year’s presidential election. La France Insoumise (LFI), the radical-left party led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, has openly supported the students’ demands, with its elected officials appearing at demonstrations. The government, including Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, has accused LFI and associated far-left groups of helping to inflame the unrest and, according to a government intelligence assessment, of playing a role in organizing it. LFI has rejected those accusations, saying its politicians are supporting students and their demands rather than encouraging violence.
The dispute has given the protests a political significance beyond the schools themselves as Marine Le Pen, leader of the National Rally (Rassemblement National), has criticized La France Insoumise’s involvement in the protests, accusing the party of exploiting the student movement and contributing to disorder while distinguishing those actions from the students’ underlying grievances.
Belgium has seen parallel protests, though on a different scale and over different policies
In September, about 13,000 people, including both teachers and students, demonstrated in Liège against spending cuts in the French-speaking Wallonia-Brussels education system according to the Brussels Times.
Trade unions warned that the measures could eliminate nearly 2,000 full-time-equivalent positions, increase pressure on staff and lead to school mergers, or in the worst case scenario, closures. Protesters called for smaller classes, renovated buildings and lower workloads.
Students in Brussels have also protested changes to higher-education financing. Hundreds demonstrated on 16 September against higher tuition fees and new eligibility rules for public funding, arguing that the reforms could make university less accessible to students from lower-income families. Under the new system, annual registration fees can reach €1,194 for some students.
The Belgian protests have not developed into the same nationwide confrontation seen in France but the underlying grievances have a common thread. Students and education workers are challenging policies they say are shifting the costs of an increasingly strained education system onto schools, staff and families.
Read more:
