French High School Protests Disrupt Hundreds of Schools Over Class Conditions

On October 7, 2026, French school administrators tested a new half-day of in-school dialogue meant to calm three weeks of high-school protests that had shut or disrupted hundreds of lycées nationwide. The unrest began in the Paris region on September 17 and spread across France, combining strikes and building blockades with, in several cities, clashes between protesters and police, according to France 24 and France Info.

How the protests spread nationwide

By October 1, 640 lycées had been hit by blockades or attempted blockades, according to figures from the Union étudiante cited by France Info. The movement also reached about 30 universities. Students were protesting overcrowded classrooms and teacher shortages, the outlet reported.

Four days later, on October 5 and 6, classes were fully or partially suspended in 400 to 500 secondary schools where safety conditions were judged insufficient, France 24 reported. In the Île-de-France region around Paris alone, more than 160 of the area's 468 public lycées closed — roughly one in three.

Violence, injuries and arrests

The protests were not uniformly peaceful. France Info reported fires set at two lycées in Nantes that damaged building entrances, burning barricades in Grenoble, and attacks on buses in Marseille, including the assault of one driver. Two school administrators were injured in Normandy, and police reported more than 600 arrests outside the Paris region alone.

Nationwide, France 24 reported that 24 schools were burned or vandalized and 78 education staff members were injured. The outlet cited specific cases including a 16-year-old who lost sight in one eye during the unrest, a teacher doused with gasoline, a police officer beaten, and a 15-year-old accused of spraying a flammable substance on a woman in Marseille. Authorities had recorded more than 5,000 arrests linked to the movement since it began, France 24 said. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez denied that police had used disproportionate force, saying officers were there to protect young people rather than repress them, according to the same report.

Government's half-day dialogue plan meets resistance

Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu told the National Assembly on Tuesday, October 6, that every high school would dedicate a half-day to what the government calls 'temps lycéens' — a dialogue period letting students raise concerns and proposals about their schooling conditions, RCI.fm reported. The measure took effect the next day, October 7, with other classes continuing as normal.

Alongside the half-day, the Education Ministry opened a national online consultation through its Agora platform, open until October 23, inviting students to anonymously flag concerns such as building conditions, timetable organization, teacher replacements and transparency around the Parcoursup university-admission platform, RCI.fm reported. Education Minister Édouard Geffray and Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez were both scheduled to appear before National Assembly committees that same day, October 7, RCI.fm reported.

The plan immediately ran into opposition from school leaders. SNPDEN-UNSA, the main union representing lycée principals, said it would not organize the internal-democracy half-day until security conditions improved, France Info reported.

• The announcement left no time to prepare a meaningful dialogue session
• Staff are already exhausted after weeks of mobilization
• The government did not consult school leaders before announcing the measure

What happens next

France 24 reported that Lecornu ordered classes to resume wherever security allowed and assigned ministers to priority areas including unfilled teaching positions, long-term staff absences and school building renovation. The ministry set an October 16 deadline for an initial progress report specifically on filling long-term staff absences and vacant teaching posts, while a separate meeting on school building renovation was scheduled for the following Tuesday, France 24 said. The outlet also cited Île-de-France regional president Valérie Pécresse as saying protest organizers aimed to sustain the mobilization until the Toussaint school holiday begins on October 17.

It remained unclear how many lycées would still be disrupted once the half-day dialogue sessions began, given the principals' union's refusal to organize them immediately.