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Why French High Schools Are Protesting Right Now in 2026? – Transcript
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Summary
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- French high school students are protesting due to missing unreplaced teachers, overcrowded classes, and poorly maintained school buildings.
- The speaker distinguishes between student demonstrators demanding better conditions and a separate minority of ultraviolent breakers causing vandalism.
- Following the demonstrations, the government responded by dropping plans for higher registration fees, speeding up teacher replacements, and offering students a greater say in school governance.
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Right now we are seeing French high schoolers blocking their schools, bins on fire, victims getting hurt. So why are 15 to 18 year olds so angry? I am not here to tell you what happened because I think there are a lot of news outlets that are there for that. I'm here for us to break it down together and to understand why this keeps happening in France and why it's happening in France today. It's not new
that us French people, we like to protest, especially when we disagree with something or when we want to be heard out. So, first we need to understand why the system produces protest. Firstly, it's because a lot of teachers are missing and they're not being replaced. Since 2024 to 2025, over 3,85 teaching positions remained unfilled without ever being replaced. This is a
huge problem because the previous year alone was 15 million teaching hours that were lost. The problem is if you have a teacher missing and you don't ever replace them, the students end up by not having that course. I even heard a student explain that for one whole year they didn't have a science teacher or a philosophical teacher. Then just now on October 1st, the government presents the project Lua Definance, which is the budget that they tell every single
October 1st from every year, they declared 1,588 suppressions of teaching posts for larevet the next year. For many students who already have empty hours with no replacement, honestly, the government saying this to them was kind of a joke.
They felt like the disconnected that the government is disconnected that this is not a political video. I'm not going to give my political opinions and I'm not going to take sides. I'm just going to analyze these things and try to break them down. And I think it's really important to understand that each media that you see, whether it's the national television or whether it's journalists from abroad, a lot of people they focus on one aspect. There is so
much more to it. There's the history to what's happening. There's what students are saying. There's what the government is saying. There's also the reform reforms of the system that are happening. The most important is to really keep an open mind and to hear all of these opinions out. Second, in France, we say that the classes are too full to learn well. It's the well part that matters because I grew up in Asia and I've been to schools in multiple countries and the classes really varied
from country to country. And the thing is, you can have a big class with a lot of students, but you need to be able to learn well. In 2005, many LES high schools, they were filled with 28 students per class. And today, it's about 34 to 35 students in one class.
And a lot of people are saying there's an overload in the L especially in the outskirts whether it's or v there is this aspect that is making a lot of students angry as well is that they feel like that the education that you receive in the city than the education that you can fill in the outskirts no le you can picture a student on terminal in last year of high
school in a class of 35 people from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. No margin or help when a teacher is missing. More noise, less concentration. Students start to doubt if actually the government or the system is really listening to them. And also, they're just very frustrated that the experience is not the same in the center of a city or in the center of Paris versus Bonu or the rural lees. Third, many high schools are vit meaning that
it's the building itself that is very poor. Poor insulation, toilets broken, renovation that is delayed for years. When you spend 35 hours a week in a building that doesn't feel renovated or that feels a bit abandoned, you read it as a lack of respect from the system.
And that physical fatigue and frustration builds up and feeds the anger as much as a timetable. That is why blocking these high schools is how they feel like as the only way to be heard. Block the entrance in the morning to force a discussion. But this raises the two questions that you hear in France right now.
And also something that I really want to talk about, we need to distinguish between are the manifest manifestants high schoolers who chant and demand more teacher posts and renovation of their buildings and the other thankfully smaller group of people. So leaser literally means the breakers and liaser are a separate minority who only come
for force confrontation. They provoke bins on fire, vandalism, clashes with all those videos that we're seeing online at the moment when it goes out of hand. Cameras and the media only show and focus on the violence. The support of what the students actually want false. I have to close my window because We can hear a lot of policemen in Paris
these days. And finally, the last thing. This is really important to know. Turns school's dress into protest. Soup is the national university administration platform in France. For a 16, 17 yearear-old in a full class with missing teachers, orientation feels like the final filter that is not equal to everyone. That is why this keeps happening in France. What's happening now? Education Minister Edoar Jeffrey
which he must be quite busy at the moment has also said that Leaser this minority ultraviolent group is holding this movement back and everyone is actually focusing on that part right now. What initially was something important that's something that needs to be set out needs to be spoken out that the students want to be heard is completely covered by all the rest whether it's the guess that are trying to break things the minority groups that are getting involved politics that are
getting involved and also everything that is being destroyed whether it's cars things burning everyone is focusing on that and no one is understanding what this whole meaning was behind it and also the thing about rioting or protest ing is that people do this not just for the fun of it. I mean besides that minority group, people do this to be heard and I think in a lot of countries besides France this courage or this will
of wanting to be heard which personally I respect a lot and after this the government did respond you know cuz you can do these things in some countries you can do these things completely be stopped by the police and by military and then none of your opinions will be heard. But the government did respond saying that they will drop some plans like the plan of having higher registration fees for the schools that they would speed up teacher replacements. They would also give students more say in the school
governance and these are all expected for laet so of next year. What's really questioning a lot of people right now is what's going to happen now. But I think is to also really understand why this movement was set up in the first place.
is that the actual students, they feel like they aren't respected by national and that they really want to fight for their future. There's also another part that I'm not going to go into much detail, but what's happening right now is not the first time that there are high school movements like this. It goes back to May 68, which the Vietnam War partly put the young generation of high schoolers of university people also in a
complicated situation. Then in later in 1971 in LA in the 2000s in Dilang there was la which was also mobilization to go against the educational reform. In 2010, ya reformed hundreds of high schoolers manifested against reforming their retirements which happened again in 2023 which I arrived pas mola which were a lot of high schoolers also going against
the reform of retirements and actually the whole country for delaying the age of retirement and now since midepptember the 20th of September there are blockuses from high school. None of this is new. This has existed in France for quite some time and it's really important to take a step back and look at how it's come to today and to really differentiate manifesto the students manifesting and their parents as well
and leasurer and the extreme ultraviolent minority groups. You need to separate them. The blockus itself and why they're doing this is worth understanding. The violence is not. Blocking to demand teachers and decent rooms and classrooms is legitimate.
Burning bins in front of a l which is not done by all the manifestants is a gimmick of a revolt but that is really going nowhere. And the thing is as French if we want fewer blockers we need lasting recruitment and teaching real renovation to listen to what students actually need. I don't think the solution is always radical solutions.
And I think in today's world, a lot of people are all or nothing when it comes to ideas. It's either they go to the extreme right and agree with some of what they say even though they don't understand their whole program or they go to the extreme left without understanding. And as my grandpar would say before he passed away, he would always say, so I think the most important I can say
even for myself is to really listen to what everyone has to say. whether it's the people representing the right party or the left party, but most importantly, which is what this movement started for.
I think it's really important to listen to them rather than to listen to much older adults who are trying to change their words and everything or trying to put ideas in their mind. Really listen to people. Listen to people who live here. Listen to people who run into these young people. And I'm really curious, what surprises you the most of all this news? What have you seen circulating around media? Because honestly, I've heard
everything and nonsense. And also, how are schools protest handled where you live? I'm really curious about your perspective. Please share it. In these videos, I typically share videos about French culture, French etiquette, and also maare. But for big situations like this, I think it's really important to open the discussion. I'll be sharing more about it on my Instagram as well if you want to go ahead and follow me
there. And I will give more reasons about why this is happening today in my newsletter, which you can find in my description below. I hope to see you in the next video. Mercy e abanto.