French school protests spread to 141 schools as government adds 3,000 supply teachers

Protests spread across France

Secondary school pupils have protested for weeks against teacher shortages, decaying school buildings and the cost of living. The movement began in September in the suburbs of Paris and has since reached Lyon, Marseille, Lille and Nantes, where students have blocked school entrances. In the latest available count, 141 schools were closed or partly closed because of the demonstrations. University students have started to join the pupils, and official figures put the number of people on the streets at more than 71,000, a third of them in the capital. Government data counted at least 256,000 participants on 6 October, while the organisers put the figure at 450,000.

Teachers and the government response

The government has acknowledged errors in how teachers were placed in schools and has promised to correct them. Education minister Edouard Geffray set out the response in direct terms.

Three thousand teachers will be placed in schools. Then I will authorise school principals to hire beyond the usual limit.

Unions warn that the measure could put teacher substitutions during the winter at risk and say it is not a solution. The government is also carrying out budget cuts, a decision tied to public debt of 119% of GDP and a deficit of 5.4%. Protesters say their complaints go beyond staffing, extending to the cost of living and the gap between city centres and poorer suburbs. In its third week, the movement is increasingly a wider protest against spending cuts.

Crumbling buildings and spending on schools

Cellphone videos circulating on social media show rats in toilets, leaking roofs and broken heating. At Lycee Paul Eluard in Saint-Denis, pupils report vermin and burst pipes, while in Pantin they say windows cannot be opened even when summer temperatures reach 40 degrees Celsius. Over 80% of elementary school buildings in France are more than 50 years old, and an estimated 10 to 20% of school buildings are considered in serious need of renovation. Responsibility is divided: the central government pays teachers and sets national curricula, while municipalities maintain elementary schools, departments colleges and regions lycees. More than two-thirds of local budgets already go to staffing and pensions, leaving little room for investment. The Ile-de-France region approved a renovation and expansion programme for 2017 to 2027 worth 6.6 billion euros.

Spending comparison

France spends 6.7% of its GDP on education, a substantial share by EU standards. On LCI on 8 October, Bruno Retailleau, president of Les Republicains and a presidential candidate, said the crisis in schools was not one of resources.

We are one of the countries in the OECD that spends the most. On lycees, for example, and for lycee students, it is 27% more than the OECD average.

OECD data for 2023, published at the end of September, put French upper-secondary spending at 19,527 dollars per pupil, against an OECD average of 15,288 dollars. That is 27.7% more, the figure Retailleau cited. France ranks ninth in the OECD, behind Germany (23,653 dollars), Austria (21,292) and Belgium (20,117). The OECD report points to the large number of vocational pupils educated in French lycees as one factor behind the gap.

Police, violence and student voices

Some demonstrations have turned into clashes, with protesters throwing objects at police, burning rubbish bags and gates, and damaging shop windows and bus stops. Police have responded with tear gas, batons and weapons that fire rubber bullets. Videos of police violence and injured teenagers have spread online and drawn more people onto the streets. A 15-year-old lost a hand in a grenade explosion and a 16-year-old lost the sight of one eye, which has drawn sharp criticism of police conduct, especially because many protesters are minors.

Ana Julija, a student who studied in Italy and now attends university in France to become a teacher, described the violence in measured terms. Speaking about the individual violent acts she has seen, she said:

They are not at all representative of the whole movement, but are instead exploited to neutralise the demands raised in the protests.

Several Italian students, some already living in France and others who travelled there for the protests, have joined the demonstrations.