French PM slams violence at student protests and…

Tenberal correspondent Simon Wong reports, transferred from TLDR News:

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This might sound like Groundhog Day to some of you, but France is going through major protests again. Except this time, instead of pensioners, they involve some very angry students. Last week, huge high school demonstrations gripped Paris and its suburbs, and have since spread to other cities, including Mont Pelia, Leyon, and Marseilles. To protest against what they describe as overcrowded classrooms, packed schedules, a shortage of teachers, and a more general crisis of underfunding, students have blockaded schools, and taken to the streets. So far, classes are totally or partly suspended in some 400 to 500 high schools across France, according to the country's education minister. He added that 24 schools had been quote burned or ransacked since the protest began, while France's justice minister said 735 of France's 3,700 schools had been affected in one way or another by student protests. So, in this video, we're going to take a closer look at why these protests started in the first place, why they've been so polarizing, and what they mean for French politics.

We sometimes make mistakes in our videos, and when we do, we think it's really important for us to be as open and transparent as possible. That's why we have a fortnightly podcast called The Editorial, where we respond to your criticisms, answer your questions, and explain what we got wrong. Watch the show by clicking the link in the description. So, first off, what do these students want, and why are they blockading their schools? Well, their main complaint is the lack of funding going into education and the shortage of teachers, which according to them is having a huge impact on their learning conditions and abilities. On social media, students have been posting photos and clips pointing to the dilapidated state of their schools, including cockroaches, rats, mold, water leaks, broken shutters, and missing tables and chairs. Of course, conditions vary immensely across the country, but these scenes have been taken as symptoms of a wider decay affecting the school system with public schools in the suburbs hardest hit. Now, even if the world has been paying more attention ever since the protest kicked off, this really is not a new problem for France. In 2023, the education minister told Leond that the share of schools and educational establishments showing significant dilapidation was on the up and now stood at around 10%. Also in 2023, a National Assembly report covering the country's 60,000 public and private school buildings found that the school estate is globally in poor condition with more than half of France's school property dating from before 1914 or from the post World War II reconstruction wave.

If you've been following students complaints, you'll know that it's not just the state of the buildings that's been angering French students. Other complaints include a decline in the quality of teaching and thus the level of educational attainment which they also blame on a lack of funding. This would be broadly consistent with the latest PISA data which was published by the OECD in September and is generally considered the gold standard for cross-country comparisons of student attainment and education systems. French students have suffered deep declines in all PISA tests, including an unprecedented drop in maths. It's probably worth mentioning here that France isn't an outlier in this respect. In fact, most countries have seen their PISA scores decline, especially since the pandemic, but that doesn't mean it's not a problem. Furthermore, the accompanying OECD report on the French education system pointed to similar issues that students have complained about during the protests. teacher shortages, poor classroom conditions, and inequality between richer and poorer students. Another complaint protesters have been voicing is the students overpacked schedules with school days that usually start at 8:00 a.m. and end at 6:00 p.m. as a counterbalance to France's longer holidays. Some are also calling for an end to state-run admissions platforms for higher education, which they deem unfairly selective. As is often the case with youth protest movements, they've also tended to absorb other more international issues such as Palestine or even artificial intelligence. The protests, which again are nominally about education funding, probably wouldn't have dominated the news cycle were it not for the fact that in some areas they've turned violent. At least 170 students and 78 educational staff have been injured since the demonstrations first erupted in the Paris region, according to the education minister. Just this Monday, a local newspaper reported that a 15-year-old boy had his hand blown off after picking up a police stun grenade in a small town in the north of France. According to the Interior Minister, more than 5,000 people have been arrested in the last week, with 85% of them miners. The protests have received lots of criticism, especially after some schools were set on fire, including in N and Lyon. Conversely, police violence against protesters has also escalated with Amnesty International accusing the police of using disproportionate force against minors, including the use of batons, tear gas, and flash ball guns.

The other reason these protests have received so much media attention is that they've been folded into the ongoing campaign for the upcoming presidential election in April 2027. And politicians from all parties have spent the better part of the last week pointing fingers with most of them pointed to the far-left candidate Jeanluke Melanchon who according to the most recent polls will likely face the far-right candidate Marine Le Pen in the run-offs. Even the French government has accused the far-left party France and Bowed of propping up the demonstrations. In an interview on French public radio, for instance, the education minister claimed far-left activists infiltrated the high school student movement, hijacked it from the students themselves, and engaged in extreme violence. Somewhat less surprisingly, Marine Le Pen has taken a similar line, saying, quote, "These are no longer student protests. They're riots organized by professionals and overseen by members of parliament from Melanchon's party, La France in Sumese." while calling for a new anti-rier law. For his part, Melanchon has called for peaceful protests, but framed them as a reaction to the lamentable state of national education that Mcron created. Anyway, you get the point. France streets are chaotic at the moment. The media and politicians are deeply polarized on the issue, and students are determined to keep blockading schools and get their demands heard.

So, what has the French government actually done to try to ease tensions? Well, not much. Unlike other protest movements that demanded a reform be scrapped, like in 2018 during the yellow vest protests, this one is asking for long-term structural policies that take time and money. That makes things a tad complicated for a government that's hamstrung by France's miserable public finances and a president that will be out of office in only a few months. The 2027 budget, which members of Parliament will be reviewing in a week, includes several billion euros in spending cuts and savings, including the removal of 1588 teacher jobs, which the government justified by a shrinking student population. That obviously won't sit well with people on the street who are already protesting a shortage of teachers, and means it's hard to see the protests ending anytime soon. The students also have a historical inspiration to fuel them along. One big chapter in French history classes, after all, is dedicated to the studentled protests of 1968, which nearly toppled the government and helped transform French society.

TLDR Explains: What is the French Student Uprising?

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