Mass protests among schoolchildren continue in France over teacher shortages and overcrowded classrooms

A wave of protests organized by secondary school students continues in French regions. As part of these protests, activists are trying to block access to educational institutions, BFMTV reports.

The main demands of the protesters are to solve the problem of an acute shortage of teaching staff and eliminate overcrowding in classes.

Thus, on September 29, protest events covered about ten educational institutions in the metropolitan region of Ile-de-France. In particular, in Paris, students organized a blockade of the Helene Boucher Lyceum. Representatives of schoolchildren explained to reporters that the class size in this institution reaches 35 people, while the school is not allocated sufficient funding to organize extracurricular activities and install air conditioning systems during hot periods.

Similar events are taking place in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis, as well as in the city of Lille (Hauts-de-France region). According to information from the local prefecture, 12 secondary schools in Lille were closed, and four people were detained by law enforcement during the incidents. In addition, in the Alpes-Maritimes department, about ten protesters were taken into custody on suspicion of vandalism.

Protest activity also affected the field of higher education: on September 29, several universities were blocked, including in Toulouse and the commune of Villeneuve-d'Ask (a suburb of Lille). As the TV channel clarified, more than 200 protest events in schools were recorded across the country on Tuesday. These ranged from attempts to block and hold meetings to completely blocking access to buildings. The geography of performances covered not only Ile-de-France, but also Grenoble, Lille, Nice and Lyon.

The scale of the actions is growing: according to the Franceinfo radio station, the day before, on September 28, access was blocked in 180 secondary schools throughout France, and law enforcement officers detained 164 people.