French student protests escalate as hundreds of high schools close

SharpPost Editorial Team | October 2, 2026

About 400 high schools in France were closed on October 2 as protests over teaching conditions spread and some demonstrations turned violent, Reuters reported. The government urged parents to discourage their children from joining street protests, while some schools switched to remote lessons.

The Education Ministry said teaching had been disrupted at more than 560 of the country's roughly 3,700 high schools by midday. Education Minister Édouard Geffray said in a television interview that at least 65 staff members and about 170 students had been injured since the protests began, and more than 100 high schools had suffered severe damage.

A fire engine responding to a blaze near Saint-Exupéry high school in Marseille was burned on October 1. Police said a group of young people surrounded the vehicle, forced firefighters to leave and then set it alight. A fire also broke out that day at Nelson Mandela high school in Nantes. The city's deputy mayor said the building had been evacuated, the blaze brought under control and no one injured.

The movement began in the Paris region before spreading to other cities. Most participants are high-school students aged 15 to 18. Students have blocked school entrances with bins and barricades, demanding action on teacher shortages, ageing buildings and school timetables.

Three teachers' unions — SNES-FSU, SNUEP-FSU and SNEP-FSU — backed the students' demands in a joint statement on October 1. They highlighted overcrowded classes, unmanageable schedules and obstacles to further study, arguing that years of education budget and policy decisions had deepened the problems.

In Pantin, a suburb of Paris, a 15-year-old student told Reuters that her class had 35 pupils but not enough chairs, and that the one-hour lunch break was too short for everyone to eat. Other students complained of absent teachers going unreplaced, overheated classrooms and long school days.

Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu convened a crisis meeting on October 1. His office said he had asked ministers to cancel upcoming official trips to focus on the protests. The government acknowledged problems in high schools but described some of the unrest as “urban violence.” Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said troublemakers were moving between schools and inciting violence.

AFP journalists in Lille on September 29 saw people setting bins alight and throwing bottles and stones at police, who used tear gas to disperse the crowd. In Saint-Denis, north of Paris, the agency reported that riot police used batons and struck students and an AFP journalist. The Interior Ministry said on October 2 that three investigations into police violence against demonstrators had been opened.

The protests coincide with the government's push for its 2027 budget. In its October 1 cabinet briefing, the government said the proposal would provide an additional €1.1 billion for school education while reducing the public deficit to 5% of gross domestic product next year. The budget remains subject to parliamentary scrutiny.

The teachers' unions called for an end to violence by all sides and urged staff to stand peacefully alongside students outside schools, protecting their right to protest and preventing outsiders from exploiting the demonstrations to commit violence. They also called for a nationwide response on education funding and policy, rather than measures confined to restoring order at school gates.