French teenagers have spent three weeks blockading their own schools. On Tuesday 6 October, France’s Interior Ministry counted 256,000 people marching across the country, 56,000 of them in Paris. Organisers put the figure at 450,000, Euronews reported that evening.
The protests are about the lycées, France’s upper secondary schools. Franceinfo, the French public broadcaster, dates the first actions to 17 September in the Paris region. By 4 October, Education Minister Édouard Geffray said classes would be fully or partly suspended at 400 to 500 of the country’s 3,700 lycées.
What students want
Al Jazeera reported on 6 October that marchers wanted absent teachers replaced, longer lunch breaks and changes to the length of the school day. Students also point to the buildings they learn in.
“There are 35 of us per classroom,” a 17-year-old told AFP at a protest in Strasbourg, as quoted by Time on 2 October. “There aren’t enough toilets, and there are water leaks in some rooms.”
The French government presented its 2027 budget on 1 October, as the blockades spread. Public Sénat, the French Senate’s news channel, reported that the school education budget rises to €65.53 billion next year, up from €64.43 billion. The same budget removes 1,588 permanent teaching posts, 1,250 of them in public schools, which the ministry links to falling rolls as the birth rate drops.
Édouard told AFP that a strictly proportional cut would have meant losing 9,600 posts. “Le gouvernement ne fait pas d’économies sur la jeunesse,” he said, meaning the government isn’t saving money at young people’s expense.
How Paris has responded
On 1 October, Édouard called the violence around schools that morning “d’une extrême gravité”, or extremely serious. He asked for classes to run remotely wherever blockades or
damage meant students couldn’t be received safely, franceinfo reported. The Interior Ministry recorded 1,949 arrests that day, according to France 24.
Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu sent his ministers a five-part roadmap on 4 October and asked for “des décisions avant la fin du mois”, decisions before the end of the month. L’Etudiant, a French education publisher, listed the five workstreams the next day.
· Replacing absent teachers, with priority for exam classes.
· Repairs to lycée buildings, worked through with France’s regional councils, with work due to finish by summer 2027.
· Timetables, including long days, gaps between classes and short lunch breaks.
· Clearer criteria in Parcoursup, the national university application system.
· A reasoned response, with a deadline, to every proposal from a school’s student council.
The education ministry opened an online consultation for lycée students on 5 October. It runs on the government’s Agora platform until 23 October.
On 6 October, the Prime Minister suspended lycée classes for the rest of the week, Al Jazeera reported. “Burning down a high school does not improve the state of high school buildings,” he said. He said the pause would let heads, teachers and students hold what he called “internal democracy” about school conditions.
France’s Justice Ministry said more than 6,000 people had been arrested since the protests began, 87% of them minors, Time reported. Sébastien put the injured at 215 students and 85 school staff. A 15-year-old lost his hand after picking up a police stun grenade in Lens on 5 October, according to the regional newspaper La Voix du Nord.
Closer to home
New Zealand schools have handled student walkouts through the attendance register. Under the Ministry of Education’s Attendance Code Guidance, updated on 1 February 2026, an absence the principal approves is justified (code J). An absence that’s explained but not approved is unjustified (code E). The guidance gives boards and principals discretion over both codes and asks schools to set their thresholds with their parent community.
When School Strike 4 Climate marched on 26 September 2024, Associate Education Minister David Seymour urged schools to record students who joined as unjustifiably absent, the NZ Herald reported that day.
The French roadmap’s last workstream asks schools to give student councils a reasoned answer with a deadline. New Zealand has a standing channel at board level. Every board with students in Year 9 and above must hold a student representative election each September, according to NZSTA’s school board elections guidance.
France’s ministers have until the end of October to bring their first decisions. The student consultation closes on 23 October.
