"Our address should not determine our future"

Maisa, a 17-year-old from a poor suburb of Paris who wants to become an English teacher, joined tens of thousands of other students and their supporters this week in protests that have spread across France over dilapidated schools, overcrowded classrooms and a shortage of teachers.

At the Lise Le Corbusier school in Aubervilliers, a suburb north of Paris in the Saint-Denis department, protesters said schools in poor neighborhoods like theirs face the worst conditions.

"Last year I took my French exam in high school without having a French teacher, and teachers have a huge influence," said Maisa.

"These are not the conditions for learning."

As protests continued this week in more than 1.200 French high schools, police responded in some cases with tear gas and rubber bullets. More than 5.000 people were arrested, and some protesters suffered serious injuries, including eye injuries, broken teeth and blows to the head. Interior Minister Laurent Nunez described the situation as “an atmosphere of unacceptable violence” and called for order to be restored.

Amelia, a 15-year-old, joined Maisa in the crowd outside the school gates, holding a banner that read: “Our address should not determine our future.” She said she was protesting to demand the same rights as students in other parts of the country.

"Education authorities are not investing enough in the suburbs. It's class-based and racist," she said.

Ilys Rabate, a political scientist, said the protests show how marginalized urban neighborhoods in France are increasingly influencing national politics.

"When there is a collapse of public services, public education, those who feel it the most and hardest are those at the bottom," he said.

Political flashpoint

Protests and blockades across the country, which began last week, have become a major political issue at a sensitive time for the government, which on Thursday unveiled a series of highly unpopular spending cuts in its 2027 budget.

The education budget is set to increase by 1,7 percent, less than the inflation rate, to 65,53 billion euros, excluding teacher pensions.

Education Minister Edouard Gefre said that education remains a priority and that the budget growth below the inflation rate is a consequence of the population decline.

The protests began in the Parisian suburbs, where poverty levels are high, and then spread to Paris itself and other French cities, including Marseille, Strasbourg, Tours and Lille.

At the Lisa Le Corbusier School, classes in subjects including math, humanities, English and physical education have been canceled since the beginning of the school year due to a shortage of teachers, said Karima Kara Ali, an elected parent representative.

In Saint-Denis, two-thirds of high schools took part in protests on Thursday, the CGT union said. Young people, teachers and parents in the four towns complained about unsanitary conditions in schools and a chronic shortage of staff, including nurses and social workers.

Louise Paternoster, representative of the CGT education union branch for Saint-Denis, said the area does not receive enough funding in relation to the number of students and their educational needs.

According to a union survey, two-thirds of schools in the department have unfilled teaching positions.

There are not enough teachers.

"Our students are losing their instructional time. Some schools don't have drinking water. We are not on par with other departments," she said, attributing the staffing shortage to state cuts that have eliminated 3.256 teaching positions nationwide by 2026.

In Pantin, a town on the northeastern outskirts of Paris, teacher Dylan Roche joined her students in a protest outside their school this week to support their demands and protect them from the police.

"What they wrote on the banners, we wrote in a letter to the local education authorities: overcrowded classrooms, no nurses, no social workers - which is particularly problematic for students with learning disabilities, many of whom live in difficult material conditions," she said.

Although France ranks roughly in the middle of OECD countries in terms of education spending, average spending per secondary school student has barely changed over the last decade, standing at €11.660 in 2024, compared to €11.910 in 2010, according to data from the Ministry of Education.

The last nationwide high school student protest movement of similar scale, demanding more money for education, took place in the 1990s. It was preceded by a sharp expansion of access to the baccalaureate, the final exam that usually allows for university education, without schools receiving sufficient additional funding, said Professor Clemence Cardon-Ken of Paul Valéry University, who studies education funding.

The movement then succeeded in winning funding increases, but per-pupil spending subsequently stagnated despite the increasing demands placed on schools.

Kardon-Ken said that students and teachers have taken on additional responsibilities over the years, including navigating the Parkursip system, a university admissions system introduced in 2018 that some students and teachers criticize as non-transparent and discriminatory.

“In times of budget constraints, it is more difficult to reduce inequalities,” said Cardon-Ken.