French universities close campuses as student protests spread nationwide

Protests have broken out in France as students demonstrate against the poor quality of education across the country.

Students are protesting against dilapidated learning environments, teacher shortages, and severe overcrowding in classrooms.

The protests began in Paris on 21 September and have since spread across the country.

The Union Syndicale Lycéenne (USL), a students’ union, has claimed that 90% of universities have been blockaded by protesters.

On 2 October, 735 of 3,700 French high schools were affected by the protests.

More than 5,000 people have been arrested since the start of the movement, with around 85% of them being minors, according to the AFP news agency.

The police response, which has included rubber bullets and tear gas, has drawn criticism from students and parents.

Kesia, a student in the Paris suburb of Pantin, told France 24: “We are 35 per class, we don’t have enough chairs in classrooms, the one-hour lunch break [is too short] for everyone to get food.”

Another student said: “When we see fellow students being beaten, choked, blinded in one eye, and tear-gassed … while we’re simply trying to have a dialogue with the government, of course it makes people angry.”

Questions are surfacing regarding where France’s education budget is going, as Macron’s government spends more per lycée (further secondary education) student than the EU average.

Students are also calling for guaranteed university places for those who have earned them.

Minister of National Education Édouard Geffray has said that he has “called for dialogue, not for encouraging blockades”.

The government has since announced that 3,000 supply teachers will be sent to high-priority schools.

The Paris police department have said that some of the violence in Saint-Denis, north of Paris, was “egged on by far-left elements from student unions … and political groups such as … LFI”.

[The protests are] the most powerful high school and university student youth movement since those in 1968

Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of La France Insoumise

The Far-left party LFI (La France Insoumise) leader, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, has described the protests as the “most powerful high school and university student youth movement” since those in 1968.

Student union leaders are now calling for a €10 billion investment in high school and university education across France.