5,000 Arrested, Hundreds of Schools Closed as France's Student Protests Grow

France is facing a widening education crisis as high-school students prepare for another nationwide day of demonstrations, backed by major trade unions, after days of protests over overcrowded classrooms, teacher shortages and deteriorating school facilities left more than 5,000 people arrested.

The protests, which began in the Paris region in September, have spread to cities and schools across France. What started largely as student blockades and demonstrations over education conditions has developed into a broader confrontation with the government, with clashes between protesters and police reported at several locations.

French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said roughly 5,000 people had been arrested since Monday, with about 85% of those detained reported to be minors. The scale of the arrests has intensified debate over the government's handling of a movement involving predominantly teenagers.

The government's response has also highlighted the seriousness of the disruption. Education Minister Édouard Geffray said on Sunday that between 400 and 500 secondary schools could be fully or partially closed because authorities could not guarantee adequate security. He said 24 schools had been burned or ransacked and 78 education workers had been injured since the unrest began.

Students, however, say the unrest should not obscure the reasons behind their mobilization. Their complaints include shortages of teachers and other school staff, overcrowded classrooms, poorly maintained buildings and difficult school schedules. Some are also challenging aspects of France's university admissions system, including Parcoursup, arguing that it reinforces inequalities in access to higher education.

The movement has expanded beyond high schools. University students have begun joining demonstrations and blockades in several cities, while student organizations have called for a major nationwide mobilization on Tuesday, October 6.

That mobilization is now receiving significant backing from organized labour. The powerful CGT union has publicly declared that it will stand alongside high-school and university students on October 6. Several education unions, including FSU, UNSA Education, FO, CFDT Education, CGT Educ'action and SUD Education, have also called on education workers to participate, including through strike action.

The unions say students' demands overlap with longstanding complaints from teachers and other education workers about inadequate resources and worsening working and learning conditions. Their support could transform what began as a youth-led movement into a wider labour and public-services confrontation.

The government, meanwhile, has sought to distinguish between legitimate student grievances and the violence that has accompanied some demonstrations. Officials have blamed radical groups for contributing to the escalation, while critics of the government's approach have accused authorities of responding too heavily to young protesters.

Paris police chief Patrice Faure described the protest movement as having become "out of control" and called for demonstrators to return to peaceful action. Authorities have warned that police will respond firmly to violence and vandalism, particularly after attacks on school buildings, clashes with officers and injuries on both sides.

The government has also faced criticism over alleged excessive use of force. Rights advocates have called for students to be heard rather than simply repressed, while some student and opposition groups have accused police of escalating tensions. The competing accounts underline the difficulty of dealing with a movement that combines genuine concerns about education with increasingly serious incidents of disorder.

The immediate challenge for the government is therefore twofold: restoring safety around schools while addressing the conditions that brought students onto the streets in the first place. Closing hundreds of schools may reduce immediate risks, but it does not resolve complaints about staffing, infrastructure, class sizes or inequality.

Tuesday's mobilization could become an important test of whether the student movement remains primarily an education campaign or develops into a broader national protest against government spending priorities and public-service policy. With unions now joining students, the dispute has the potential to move well beyond the school gates and put additional pressure on Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu's government at a politically sensitive moment.

What happens next will matter not only for France's schools but for the wider relationship between a younger generation increasingly frustrated with its prospects and a government struggling to balance public demands with financial constraints. The thousands of arrests have already made the protests one of France's most significant recent youth mobilizations; the arrival of the unions could determine whether the crisis is contained or becomes a much larger national confrontation.