France’s High Schools Erupt in Nationwide Protests Over Deteriorating Conditions

Authorities report hundreds detained as students take to the streets over overcrowded classrooms, chronic teacher shortages, and aging school infrastructure.

French secondary-school students have ignited trash bins and established road blockades outside schools in multiple cities, expressing frustration over overcrowded classrooms, a persistent shortage of teachers, and deteriorating school buildings.

According to regional education authorities, prefectures, and union representatives, several school principals were injured, harassed, or physically assaulted during Thursday’s blockades at high schools across the country.

Police have already made hundreds of arrests at the lycees, which students aged 15 to 18 attend for the final three years of their secondary education in France.

At the Victor Hugo high school in Marseille, local authorities said teachers were accidentally splashed when a student attempted to pour petrol into a rubbish bin. Earlier in the day, the prosecutor’s office had reported that teachers were assaulted and “doused in petrol.”

At Saint-Exupery high school in the same city, police said hundreds of young people surrounded a fire truck that had been dispatched to extinguish a morning blaze. The crowd forced the firefighters to abandon the vehicle, which was then set ablaze.

In Nantes, firefighters extinguished a fire at a high school entrance following what regional education officials described as a gathering “marked by violence towards staff.” In Strasbourg, tram services were suspended to “restrict the movements of rioters and demonstrators,” and students set fire to barriers on the tram tracks, according to authorities.

“We have 35 students per classroom. In the summer, with temperatures hitting 35 degrees Celsius, it’s unbearable. There aren’t enough toilets, and some rooms have water leaks,” told Raphael, a 17-year-old who asked not to use his surname for fear of retaliation, in a statement to AFP news agency outside a protest in Strasbourg.

“The building is falling apart, the cafeteria is far too small. There’s no budget, no resources, and not enough supervisory staff.”

His words mirror a broader wave of student anger that has taken hold across France since the previous week, as high school grievances have escalated into widespread nationwide unrest.

By mid-morning Thursday, police reported approximately 340 demonstrations in progress outside high schools, with more than 160 schools forced to shut down as a result.

University students have also joined the movement, blocking access to roughly 30 campuses, including facilities in Paris and Marseille, according to a student union.

Authorities have documented dozens of injuries, some sustained from thrown objects and others reportedly caused by police riot-control projectiles.

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez announced that police have opened internal investigations into allegations of excessive force involving three students.

Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu called a crisis meeting and instructed ministers to cancel upcoming official travel so that the government could concentrate on managing the demonstrations, his office confirmed.

Education Minister Edouard Geffray said he would hold a series of meetings on Friday with representative teaching unions and parent and student associations.

The unrest has become entangled in the political race to succeed President Emmanuel Macron next May. The government has accused the far-left France Unbowed party of encouraging the protests. Presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon said on Wednesday that his party “called for nonviolent methods of struggle” and condemned the government’s response as repressive.

Source link