France is facing a nationwide student protest movement that began at a high school near Paris and has since spread to cities across the country.
More than 6,000 people have been taken into police custody in recent weeks while hundreds of schools have closed or suffered damage during clashes between protesters and police.
The protests started on September 21 at Saint-Exupéry high school in a Paris suburb where students joined teachers to demand more staff and resources. The school later received additional staff and the strike ended but the protests soon spread to other schools.
Student leader Manès Nadel said that the demonstrations had grown rapidly and described the number of schools involved as unprecedented.
“It’s an unprecedented number of schools that are now involved,” he said, adding that France’s Education Ministry had been “totally overwhelmed by the crisis.”
Students began blocking entrances to schools in Paris and nearby areas before similar protests emerged in cities including Lille and Marseille. Demonstrators have raised concerns about overcrowded classrooms, a lack of teachers and limited resources across the education system.
France now has fewer secondary school teachers than it did in 2008 despite having around 250,000 more students. Around 70 percent of classrooms in the public sector have more than 30 students.
The protests have also turned violent in several areas. In Paris, protesters set fire to rubbish bins, desks and chairs while riot police used tear gas and clashed with some demonstrators.
More than 100 high schools have suffered damage since the protests began. Students and education staff have also suffered injuries.
One student in the north-eastern city of Lens lost his hand after reportedly picking up a grenade while another student in Tours lost vision in one eye.
Critics have also questioned the police response. In Alençon, a police officer was filmed using a headlock on a girl, a technique that French law now prohibits.
The protests have drawn hundreds of thousands of people onto the streets, including students, teachers and trade union representatives. France’s Interior Ministry estimated that around 256,000 people joined demonstrations nationwide on Tuesday, including 56,000 in Paris. The Union Syndicale Lycéenne, one of the student unions organising the protests, put the national turnout at around 450,000.
More than 400 people were detained during Tuesday’s demonstrations, according to the Interior Ministry.
The government initially faced criticism for focusing on the involvement of the far-left La France Insoumise (LFI) party rather than the students’ demands. LFI leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon has defended the students’ right to protest and his party’s involvement in the demonstrations.
The government also faced pressure over its handling of police action and the cost of the unrest. Damage to schools in the greater Paris region has been estimated at 7 million euros ($7.84 million).
Officials had initially agreed to remove planned fees for technological high schools from the 2027 budget. The government later dropped the measure.
“The government’s response has been irresponsible and it confirms exactly why the students are angry, because they are never heard,” said Manès. “They are responding only with repression.”
The protests escalated further late last week when around 2,000 people were taken into custody in one day. France’s interior minister said that the unrest had shifted from student demonstrations towards urban violence.
Education Minister Edouard Geffray met student leaders on Friday but the meeting failed to produce an agreement. Student leaders then called for a larger turnout in Tuesday’s demonstrations.
Prime Minister (PM) Sébastien Lecornu told the National Assembly on Tuesday that the government needed to respond to students’ concerns while condemning the violence.
“Extreme violence has reached the gates of our high schools and it must be condemned unequivocally,” Lecornu said.
He said that 215 students and 85 education staff had suffered injuries during the protests. Lecornu also rejected claims that the government had instructed police to suppress the demonstrations.
The prime minister said that schools would hold sessions from Wednesday to allow students to discuss their concerns with school leadership.
“That is why time will be set aside starting this week, from Wednesday, to allow each leadership team to organize a session of internal democracy within its high school,” he wrote on X.
The Education Ministry has also launched an online portal where students can submit concerns and suggestions about the education system.
Some students have called for further demonstrations on Thursday.
