Photo Credit: Nathan Laine/Bloomberg via Getty via NBC News
On Oct. 6, more than 250,000 people protested on the streets of France for student rights, which grew the movement nationwide, according to figures from France’s Interior Ministry. Protests began in mid-September at a Paris-region high school, fuelled by frustration over poor conditions in public schools.
Protesters say that schools are dilapidated and short-staffed, leaving gaps in students’ schedules. Teachers’ salaries are too low, they say, with most being just barely above minimum wage. According to CBC News, the French government spends more money on education than on any other department, but funding hasn’t increased in proportion to the rapidly growing youth population in France.
At first, the rallies were largely peaceful, but they eventually led to school disruptions, arrests due to violence, and hundreds of schools being blockaded. According to Education Minister Édouard Geffray, 24 schools have been burned or ransacked. Businesses and local shops have also experienced looting and vandalism.
According to CBC News, more than 5,000 people were arrested by Oct. 7, and according to BBC News, almost 7,000 people were detained by Oct. 9, with 85 per cent of them being children. Additionally, more than 200 students have been injured in the protests, according to BBC News.
In response to the protests, police have deployed tear gas and other riot-control weapons. A student was blinded after being hit in the eye by a flash ball in Lens, France. The government also suspended the use of stun grenades after a 15-year-old boy’s hand was mutilated in Northern France during a police confrontation.
Bastien Riez, a union representative from Lens, believes that current police tactics could damage the relationship with France’s youth.
“For many, this is their first experience of democracy and protest, and they are met with police and a sham of social dialogue and democracy. I fear that many young people will stop believing in this so-called democracy altogether,” he said, according to BBC News.
Amnesty International voiced concern about “the disproportionate use of force against secondary school protests,” according to CBC News, and called for police to de-escalate the situation. There were at least 18 active internal police investigations into alleged police violence, as of Oct. 7.
One Parisian student, a 15-year-old named Kaspar, spoke of his fear when coming face-to-face with the police in full riot gear, as per BBC News. He said that he and his friends protested peacefully, but oftentimes, strangers hijacked the protests. “These people are coming just to shoot fireworks at police officers and they run. This is not the message we want to send to the world.”
Teachers’ salaries are one of many issues of concern for the protestors.
According to CBC News, in 1980, the entry-level salary for a French teacher was more than double the minimum wage. Nowadays, their entry-level salaries are just above minimum wage, at around €20 ($31.56 CAD) per hour.
“The government has not really made an effort to make the profession attractive,” said Agnès Van Zanten, a senior research professor at France’s National Centre for Scientific Research, according to CBC News.
According to a survey conducted by a secondary school teachers’ union, more than half of French schools are short-staffed. Recent reforms extended the usual school day from 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM, but because of the lack of teachers, students can have days with multiple hours of gaps in instruction. According to CBC News, chronic staffing shortages have affected public schools in France for almost a decade, and can result in students missing hundreds of hours of instruction.
“It’s now impossible to give every child the attention they deserve,” said secondary school teacher Marine Molins, who protested in Lille.
Additionally, classrooms are often overcrowded, with an average of 25 to 35 people per classroom, according to CBC News. As well, students describe frequent water leaks and pest infestations in schools. Classrooms are also uninsulated, which causes discomfort for students during temperature shifts, a concern that has been especially pronounced during recent heat waves.
“In the summer, it’s 35 degrees,” said Rudy Cuvilliez, a student who studies in the Paris suburb of Pantin. “And we’re, like, 30 to 35 students in every class, so it’s unbearable!”
“There aren't enough chairs. We have to go find some at the start of every lesson,” said a 16-year-old student, describing his experiences at school to BBC News. “We’ve got 50 minutes to eat at lunchtime, but there are 2,000 of us that need to get through to the canteen,” he added.
On Oct. 7, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu addressed the nation. He pledged to add new policies in schools by the end of the month. Lecornu has ordered his ministers to tackle students’ leading demands. This includes ensuring absent teachers are replaced, reviewing the length of the school day, and considering the need for longer lunch breaks. The government will also look at repairing ageing school buildings, said Lecornu.