Gilets jeunes? France’s school protests

Last week, more than a quarter of a million people took to the streets across France in protests that began in high schools and have snowballed into a wider expression of national anxiety. The demonstrations, which have involved blockades of over a thousand secondary schools and clashes with riot police, started in a single school in Créteil, just outside Paris, in late September. By Monday, 5,000 people had been arrested, 85% of them underage, and the violence has included burned public property and heavy-handed police tactics such as tear gas and flashball guns. One student lost a hand after picking up a police grenade.

What the students are protesting

The immediate grievances of the students are concrete and tied to their daily experience. They complain about a reform of the high school leaving exam, the Baccalauréat, which has made the exam period intensely demanding. High teacher absenteeism has added to their stress, and many school buildings are in disrepair, with roofs left unmended and classrooms either too hot in summer or too cold in winter. As one student told The Economist’s Paris bureau chief, Sophie Better: “There’s a lot of high school that don’t have enough money, so they don’t have enough teachers. The budget is increasingly going down for our education when we’re supposed to be the future generation.”