Why school protests erupted in France and why solving the crisis won’t be easy

On 13 October, another large-scale nationwide protest is taking place in France. On October 13, another large-scale nationwide protest is taking place in France. 

On Friday, 141 lycées were closed, a sharp fall from the first days of the protests. But the fact that the protests have become less widespread does not mean that the political problem has gone away. France has spent years accumulating the conditions for this outburst.

It has neglected the ordinary machinery of public education, allowed regional inequalities to harden, and then responded to a student movement as if the principal issue were public order.

Read more about the crisis in France in the article by French journalist Charlotte Guillou-Clerc: A school revolution: how systemic problems in education have led to mass protests in France.

The movement began around 21 September in schools in the Créteil education district, which includes much of France’s poorer eastern suburbs. The first complaints were about the daily experience of attending a school that often seemed unable to provide the basics.

A student in Aubervilliers had no French teacher while preparing for an important examination. In Sevran, pupils showed photographs of damaged chairs, holes in ceilings, mould, leaking roofs and broken toilets.

Some classrooms were difficult to heat in winter and difficult to cool in summer.

Timetables stretched from early morning into the evening, with long gaps that left pupils stranded in school buildings without adequate supervision or food.

France’s public secondary schools have fewer teachers than they did in 2008, despite having roughly 250,000 more pupils. More than 70 per cent of classes in public general and technical schools have more than 30 pupils, while one in five has more than 35. Long absences without replacement have increased sharply, particularly in the Créteil and Versailles regions.

Buildings tell the same story. The average French lycée is more than six decades old.

Nor is the idea that French schools are becoming unsafe entirely invented. Official surveys show substantial levels of intimidation, defiance and verbal abuse.

Many teachers report that pupils challenge their authority or mock their work. A smaller but serious minority report threats, harassment or physical assault. At the same time, the latest official data does not support the claim that French schools are simply descending into generalised violence. 

France’s republican school system promises that a child’s future should not be determined by family wealth, religion or geography.

The government has now conceded that the grievances are legitimate. 

Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has promised rapid action on teacher replacement, school buildings, timetables and Parcoursup. The Education Ministry has said it is contacting approximately 3,000 qualified teachers who could be sent to schools facing shortages.

Ministers have recognised the problem, but recognition is cheaper than delivery.

But the country is in a politically dangerous financial position.But the country is in a politically dangerous financial position. Public debt reached about 119 per cent of GDP at the end of the second quarter.

The government is working with a deficit of roughly 5.4 per cent of GDP this year, while annual interest costs are projected to rise from about €79 billion to more than €91 billion.

The government therefore faces a narrow corridor. It must invest more in the services that citizens believe are collapsing while convincing creditors that public spending will eventually be brought under control. It must punish destruction without allowing the police response to define the entire crisis. It must restore authority in schools without turning schools into extensions of the security state.

France’s crisis is not simply a crisis of youth. It is a crisis of state capacity.

France’s ability to sustain long-term European security commitments, including support for Ukraine, depends partly on whether it can rebuild domestic authority and fiscal credibility.