Students, teachers and parents marched in cities across France on Tuesday (October 6), and protesters blockaded hundreds of schools, in the biggest day of action in a wave of demonstrations demanding the government tackle understaffing and dilapidated classrooms.
In Marseille, Nantes and Lyon, the street protests began peacefully mid-morning, with the largest demonstration expected in Paris in the afternoon.
Youngsters held aloft smoke flares and placards. In front of the prestigious Henri IV high school in Paris, placards read “1 teacher for 35 students, but 5 CRS police officers for 1 student” and “Portrait of a student on fire”.
Outside Henri IV, preparatory class students joined their high school peers in a blockade to demand more funds for educational institutions.
“In some public high schools, there are rats, water leaks when it rains, and the ceiling is falling on students during class. And these conditions are simply unacceptable when we want to study in good conditions,” said Roberta, 18, a preparatory class student.
Tuesday's demonstrations come after a fortnight of protests which began in Paris's deprived suburbs before spreading across the country. The government responded with riot police, saying the movement had now morphed into urban violence.
The High School Students Union said 1,800 high schools were blockaded or would be closed for the day. Some local education authorities have tried to move classes online. The education ministry did not immediately make numbers available.
A high school student who called himself Eliott, 16, denounced what he called government “attempts at repression”.
“I think tensions are going to rise; we won't stop here at all,” he said, standing outside Helene Boucher High School in Paris. “One day, it will blow up, and really, that's what we need.”