High school students in Paris’ deprived suburbs spark national protest movement

NOT ENOUGH TEACHERS

“Our students are losing out on study time. Some schools don’t have drinking water. We are not equal to other departments,” she said, blaming shortages on government cuts of 3,256 teacher positions nationwide in 2026.

In Pantin, a town on the northeastern edge of Paris, teacher Dilan Roche joined her students as they protested outside their school this week to support their demands and protect them from the police.

“What they wrote on banners, we wrote in a letter to the local education authority: overcrowded classes, no nurses, no social workers – which is problematic for students with learning difficulties, many living in precarity,” she said.

While France ranks in the middle of OECD countries for spending on education, the average expenditure per secondary school student has remained little changed over the last decade, standing at €11,660 in 2024 and €11,910 in 2010, according to education ministry data. 

The last nationwide high school protest movement on this scale demanding more funding came in the 1990s. That followed the government sharply expanding access to the baccalauréat, the school-leaving exam that typically paves the way to university, without providing schools with sufficient additional resources, said Professor Clemence Cardon-Quint at Paul Valery University, who researches education funding. 

The movement won an increase in funding, but spending per student later stagnated despite growing demands on schools.

Cardon-Quint said students and teachers have taken on additional responsibilities over the years, including navigating Parcoursup, the university admissions system introduced in 2018 and criticised by some students and teachers as opaque and discriminatory.

“In a period of budgetary restraint, it is more difficult to reduce inequalities,” said Cardon-Quint.