New Delhi: High-school students, teachers’ unions, and opposition groups in France got onto the streets on Tuesday to protest poor school conditions, teacher shortages, and overcrowded timetables. Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg also joined the demonstrations in Saint-Denis.
“Young people are not being included in the conversation. Our future is being robbed away from us,” Thunberg told AFP as she joined students outside Paul Éluard High School in Saint-Denis, a Paris suburb at the centre of the protest movement.
The protests, which began in late September, have spread across the country.
More than 70,000 people flooded the streets and around 500 arrests were made on 8 October.
Students say years of under-investment have left them studying in overheated classrooms, with too few teachers and timetables that put excessive pressure on both students and staff. Tuesday’s protests are backed by teacher and student unions, as well as Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s far-Left France Unbowed party.
“They’re not listening to us, so we’re going to them,” the university student union L’Union étudiante wrote in a post on X.
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‘Not being heard enough’
Teenagers have blocked school entrances using bins and barriers, while protests have spread from Paris and its suburbs to cities including Marseille, Lyon, Bordeaux, and Rennes.
More than 6,800 people have been taken into police custody since the protests began, according to the justice ministry; around 86 per cent of them are minors. Authorities have also reported injuries among pupils, school staff and police officers, while police are investigating 24 allegations of brutality against demonstrators.
“Students aren’t being heard enough…not their proposals to authorities and elected officials,” said Leo, a 19-year-old graphic design student in Paris. He added that many protesters, most of them teenagers, were disturbed by the level of repression that was never seen before for a student movement.
However, the government said the situation is improving. Education Minister Édouard Geffray said around 200 schools were closed on Tuesday.
The government has announced an initial response. About 3,000 substitute teachers are being deployed to the 114 worst-affected high schools. The Education Minister said on Tuesday that 35 per cent of them had already been assigned.
But student unions argued that the measure did little to address the underlying lack of investment in secondary education.
“As long as the government does not commit €10 billion in funding, we will continue protesting,” said Sabrine Kharbach, spokesperson for the Union Étudiante student union, which is close to the France Unbowed party.
Their demands have gained urgency as the poor condition of school buildings and the recent heatwave expose the strain on classrooms.
“These are issues that deserve time, consultations, discussion and respect,” said President Emmanuel Macron.
(Edited by Aamaan Alam Khan)