Image source, Getty Images
Hundreds of thousands of students have protested across France since the end of last month
ByNick Beake
Europe correspondent
As dustbins burn and students chant "everyone hates the police" in the French city of Lille, one teenager explains why he and his friends have taken to the streets.
"There aren't even enough chairs. We have to go and find some at the start of every lesson," the 16-year-old, who did not want to give his name, says of his school.
"We've got 50 minutes to eat at lunchtime but there are 2,000 of us that need to get through the canteen."
He is one of hundreds of thousands of students who have protested across France since the end of last month over staff shortages and dilapidated facilities in the country's lycées, secondary schools attended by 15 to 18-year-olds.
Despite the government's apparent attempts to make concessions, the students show no sign of backing down.
"They have armies, they have the police, they have the powers," says Massicella, 18, as she marches through Lille. "But we have the mass population."
The protests, which have turned violent, have become a focal point in France's polarised politics, with all sides accusing the other of escalating tensions. As a presidential election approaches, politicians on both the hard right and hard left have sought to capitalise on the unrest and on what many see as the government's inability to resolve the crisis.
Massicella, second left, and her friends have been protesting in Lille
The protests - ignited at the Lycée Antoine-de-Saint-Exupéry in the deprived Paris suburb of Créteil - have struck a chord across the country.
Videos of rats scuttling through corridors in other lycées soon hit social media, providing striking symbols of the discontent. Other videos on TikTok and Instagram showed broken toilets, holes in walls and mouldy ceilings across the country. Students have complained of unbearable heat in the summer and freezing classrooms in the winter.
The anger has also focused on long school hours, chronic staff shortages, overcrowded classes and a deeply unpopular university admissions system.
Watch: Marseille school students explain why they're protesting
The problem for the French government - which became clearer as we spoke to dozens of pupils this week - is that even if a tiny minority of schools have a problem with rodents, a very large number of pupils believe their own education is failing them.
On Tuesday, the government said 250,000 people marched, most of them young. The trade unions said it was more like half a million.
But it is not just students taking to the streets - their teachers are joining them.
Secondary school teacher Marine Monins, who joined the demonstrations in Lille, shows us a laminated timetable which she says illustrates the problem.
It has become normal for pupils to start at 8am and finish as late as 6pm, but the days are punctuated by hours-long gaps because of bad planning and staff shortages.
When lessons do go ahead, the classes are typically packed with 35 pupils (by comparison, the average secondary school class in England has fewer than 23 pupils).
"It's now impossible to give every child the attention they deserve," Monins explains.
Teachers, including Marine Monins and Marjorie Roussel, have joined their students in calling for change
On Thursday, the French government made its first sign of ceding ground to protesters, with a promise of 3,000 extra supply teachers in the coming days.
Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has said by the end of October there will be a plan unveiled to respond to the crisis. Ministers have said they could look again at resources for schools within next year's squeezed budget.
But this has been met with a collective shrug at barricaded school gates across the country.
"It goes beyond having decent toilets in schools," lycée student Alcidor says in Paris, under the statue of Marianne at Place de la République, a place synonymous with protest.
"It's strong anger from the youth in France that doesn't feel represented, that feels abandoned, that feels unheard and is scared of what's coming in the future."
Image source, Reuters
Police have been accused of heavy-handed tactics
The unrest has resulted in widespread arrests and injuries.
So far, almost 7,000 people have been detained during the disorder with more than 85% being children, according to the interior ministry.
More than 700 police officers have been injured in the past three weeks.
But rights groups and unions accuse the police of resorting to heavy-handed tactics against minors, including the use of batons, tear gas and non-lethal flash-ball guns. At least 200 pupils have been injured, along with dozens of teachers.
A 15-year-old boy's hand was blown off during a confrontation between police and demonstrators in the northern city of Lens.
Reports of how the teenager sustained the injury differ. A police union source cited by the AFP news agency said the boy appeared to have picked up a sting-ball grenade fired by riot police, which then exploded in his hand. However, a witness told local media that the teenager did not pick up the grenade.
A teacher at the boy's school, Bastien Riez, who is also a union rep, believes that current police tactics could irrevocably 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."
Police have since been banned from using stun grenades at school protests.
Kaspar says strangers have been hijacking some protests
But Parisian pupil Kaspar, 15, speaks of his fear when coming face-to-face with police in full riot gear. He says he and his friends have been protesting peacefully, but strangers were hijacking their 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."
Police chiefs say violence, directed by agitators who have no link to the schools, is making their job incredibly hard.
Michel Chaballier, deputy secretary-general of the National Police Commissioners' Union (SCPN), says he fears the "political climate has been radicalised", and it was more and more difficult to have a calm, constructive public debate ahead of the national vote next spring.
"Police officers find themselves caught in the middle of this social tension, which is sometimes fuelled by irresponsible politicians," he says. "That's a shame, because I think this country deserves better."
Image source, AFP via Getty Images
Marine Le Pen has condemned damage to schools
The protests have become another bruising battleground in France's culture wars, with leaders of the hard left and right seeking to capitalise.
More than three-quarters of under-30s in France interviewed for an Ipsos survey conducted for Aix-Marseille University this week said they were worried about the state of their country.
But many people have a more profound and wider concern about just how dramatically the middle ground in France is eroding, leaving a chasm in the political landscape.
The education crisis is symptomatic of this but also threatens to act as an accelerant.
Most polling suggests more and more French citizens are looking to political extremes for answers to their problems – whether they are linked to education, the economy, identity or immigration.
Marine Le Pen of the hard right National Rally is the frontrunner in the 2027 presidential race.
Next, neck and neck, are Édouard Philippe and Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
Philippe was a prime minister in President Emmanuel Macron's first term and has since founded a centre-right party called Horizons.
Image source, AFP via Getty Images
Jean-Luc Mélenchon has been supportive of the demonstrations
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, a veteran hard-left politician and founder of France Unbowed (LFI), has been a prominent older face among the students at rallies over the past three weeks.
Opponents have accused him of provoking and profiting from the unrest, while he counters that only his party truly represents the French youth.
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