French students strike across 1,800 schools over budget cuts and class sizes

Nationwide strikes and Paris demonstrations

A wave of high school protests halted activity across 1,800 institutions throughout France on Tuesday during a third day of student mobilization. According to the French Ministry of the Interior, 250,000 people took part nationwide, while organizers estimated attendance at 500,000. In Paris, between 56,000 and 100,000 demonstrators marched from Place de la République toward Place de la Nation. Teachers formed human chains along the boulevards to shield teenage students aged 14 to 17, walking alongside parents and trade union stewards from the CGT. Political figures joined the procession, including Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Green leader Marine Tondelier, Socialist First Secretary Olivier Faure, and Saint-Denis Mayor Bally Bagayoko, who was later evacuated from the crowd after falling ill.

We were in the streets with high school students who blocked the road and traffic: today alone 1,800 high schools came to a halt to protest against sharp cuts to education, something unacceptable to a generation that sees itself condemned to poverty. Meanwhile money is allocated for war.

Core grievances and school infrastructure

Student organizations published a 10-point manifesto addressing poor results in PISA rankings and calling for systemic educational reform. Central to their demands is the abolition of Parcoursup, an algorithm-based university admissions system accused of arbitrarily filtering students. Demonstrators also protested staff shortages, demanding the hiring of permanent teachers, school nurses, and social workers to replace absent personnel without merging classrooms. Student demands cited overcrowded classrooms, with high school classes averaging 30.3 pupils nationally and reaching 38 in suburban banlieues plagued by rodent infestations. Students also protested degraded infrastructure, pointing to netting placed on the facade of Lycée Jacques Decour to stop falling debris, unheated classrooms, and the classroom ban on mobile phones.

It is true that everything is burning, but what burns the most is our heart.

Clashes, arrests, and political reactions

Although the march was largely peaceful, police clashed with approximately 300 black bloc members who threw stones and ignited rubbish bins on Boulevard Voltaire near Place de la Nation. Security forces deployed tear gas, water cannons, and stun grenades in Paris, Lyon, Marseille, and Strasbourg. Across France, police detained 488 people on Tuesday, with 43 officers injured, raising total detentions since the protests began on 28 September to 6,547. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu addressed the National Assembly on individual accountability for minors before President Emmanuel Macron held an emergency evening meeting at the Élysée Palace with Lecornu and Education Minister Édouard Geffray.

What is happening in France is nothing less than mass immigration out of control. It is not a matter of schools: it is about Islam wanting to take over a once great country.

Spillover into Italian schools

The French demonstrations triggered student action in Italy, where secondary school occupations began in Turin and Rome. In Turin, collectives associated with the Kollettivo Studentesco Autonomo occupied the Regina Margherita, Giulio, Lagrange, and Gobetti institutes. In Rome, the OSA collective occupied Liceo Cavour following disciplinary disputes, with assemblies held at Liceo Avogadro and Liceo Newton, and a protest banner against Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara hung outside Liceo Galilei. Student delegations from Italian groups including OSA, Rete degli Studenti, and UDU traveled to Paris in solidarity, with organizers planning Italian demonstrations for 17 October and an international student strike on 20 November.