The High School Student Protests in France: A Symptom of Economic Malaise and Underinvestment in the Future of Young Citizens
High school pupils were joined by parents, teachers, university students, and trade unionists in a National Day of Protest in France on 6 October 2026. On the day, around 900 of France’s 3,700 high schools (lycées) were blockaded or otherwise disrupted. The rallies were mostly peaceful, although there were reports of sporadic violence leading to 488 arrests, while 43 police officers were injured.
The movement started on 17 September 2026, when teaching staff went on strike at Lycée Saint-Exupéry, in the southeastern Parisian suburb of Créteil. By 21 September, students at the same institution had also joined in. Students protests in the Ile-de-France region soon spread to the rest the country. France has an established tradition of decentralised and coordinated mass protests to build upon. In cities across the country, protesters boycotted classes, carried placards, erected barricades, burned dustbins, hurled projectiles (bottles, stones), lighted flares, fired fireworks, vandalised bus shelters, and blockaded schools. Some school buildings were even set on fire.
France’s high school students, aged between 15 and 18, have many grievances with the French secondary educational system. Their unhappiness stems from chronic underinvestment in school infrastructure, especially in low-income suburbs; large class sizes; long hours (8 AM to 6 PM), to accommodate a shorter number of school weeks per year; demanding timetables and heavy workloads; short lunch breaks; a lack of air conditioning, making already overcrowded classrooms unbearably hot during recent heatwaves; ongoing shortages of teachers and support staff, from absenteeism, and difficulties in recruitment, retention, and replacement; poor -quality learning materials; and inequities in the process of university admission. Some school buildings, dating back to the 1960s and 1970s, have been described as crumbling and dilapidated, with falling debris, holes in the walls and ceilings, broken toilets, exposed asbestos, and cockroach and rat infestations. Parcoursup, France’s university admissions website, is considered to unduly favour students from affluent backgrounds and to disadvantage their poorer counterparts, thereby helping to widen a growing socioeconomic divide in the land of égalité.
Competing accounts of frontline actions soon emerged. Some referred to mostly peaceful protests by students, which were met with disproportionate responses from police, wielding batons and protected by visors and riot shields. Tear gas, rubber bullets, stun grenades, and water cannon were deployed in, at times, overzealous attempts to restore order. Government and media sources alleged far-left infiltration of the protests, attributing a significant role in this respect to La France Insoumise (France Unbowed; LFI). There were some significant tragedies: On 5 October, a 15-year-old lost his hand and part of his forearm after picking up a police sting ball grenade in the northern town of Lens, while two days later a 16-year-old lost an eye to a rubber bullet in the central town of Tours.
In 2023, France spent 4.6% of GDP on education from primary to tertiary levels, exceeding the OECD average of 4.2%. Expenditure on lycées is 28% higher than the OECD average for high schools. Unfortunately, higher spending on upper secondary education does not necessarily translate into better academic performance, as demonstrable in comparable figures from elsewhere in the EU. A shortage of skilled teachers, coupled with low pay and poor working conditions, especially in low-income neighbourhoods is a major contributory cause of underachievement by French pupils.
France’s high school students, without doubt, have many valid demands. Improvements to school buildings, smaller class sizes, better pupil-teacher ratios, and the wider adoption of technology will undoubtedly improve matters. Unfortunately, France’s current economic situation does not bode well for the future. France last balanced its budget in 1971, since when public spending has consistently exceeded revenue, leading to a growing budget deficit. Public debt in France, as of the end of June 2026, was 3.596 trillion euros, which is equivalent to 119% of GDP. The government’s borrowing costs have risen, leading to higher 10-year bond yields and a wider spread between French and German 30-year bond yields. Debt servicing, with 58% of national debt held by overseas investors, costs more than the education budget. Demands for increased school funding at a time of looming budget cuts pose a major difficulty for the French state. Substantial improvements in France’s high schools will require the existing parliamentary gridlock to be ended and the election of a new President in 2027. There is no endgame in sight.
Ashis Banerjee