"Let Us Study!" Roaches, Leaking Roofs... Is It All Because of No Money? The Real Reason Students Are Furious

00:00 Intro
00:19 Witnessing 'French Student Protests' Firsthand: Fires and Destruction
01:19 Why Are French Students So Angry?
04:09 Is This Really Because the Country Has No Money?
06:00 The 'Plot Twist' Behind the Teacher Shortage

This is Paris. Today, we are going to talk about schools. France is currently in chaos due to high school student protests. However, the French government seems to have little ability to resolve the issue.

1. Witnessing 'French Student Protests' Firsthand: Fires and Destruction
Scenes of students starting fires, smashing windows, and destroying cars in downtown France have been broadcast live around the world. Police have responded by firing tear gas, beating protesters with batons, and even using water cannons. I went out to the scene myself. The atmosphere was quite fierce, with rocks flying right past my feet. As these protests have continued for over two weeks, 6,877 people had been detained as of the 9th. Among them, 5,890 are minors, accounting for 86%. As many as 2,376 people have been sent to trial, and minors account for a large portion of that as well at 1,923. More than 800 police officers have been injured. There are about 3,700 high schools in France. Protests have broken out in more than a third of these schools during this protest period. Local media reports that this is the largest student protest since the one in 1998.

2. Why Are French Students So Angry?
So why on earth are French students so angry? There are three main reasons: first, poor school facilities; second, a shockingly severe shortage of teachers; and third, the changed university entrance exam system. First, let's talk about the poor school facilities. I went out to the protest sites and listened to some of the students' complaints. Conditions in French schools were more serious than expected. One student said that mice roam around classrooms and cockroaches crawl all over the place. Another mentioned that the ceiling is broken and it rains inside.

[Anoub / French Student: We came out because we were angry. The young generation in France is tired now. Some students have to study with 40 people in a single classroom. Some students even have to stay in the hallways, and in some places, the ceiling looks like it's just going to collapse.]

On top of that, Europe suffered from heatwaves exceeding 40°C (104°F) this summer. June, before the vacation started, was also severe. Yet, schools do not have air conditioning. Many don't even have fans. And since they are told to just put on more clothes because heating facilities are inadequate in the winter, some students said they received that kind of response. Frankly, from our perspective, none of these excuses are easy to accept. Yet, this is the current reality of French schools. Another problem, the "teacher shortage," is truly absurd. Students said it happens frequently that when a teacher falls ill, gives birth, or suddenly needs to take a leave of absence, substitute teachers cannot be found to fill the vacancy. These gaps don't just last a day or two. It is common for teaching positions to remain vacant for three or four months. Students preparing for university entrance exams reportedly had to take exams without classes for three to four months because essential subjects like French or mathematics lacked teachers. If you add up all the hours classes were canceled due to a lack of teachers across France during the 2024-2025 school year, it comes out to 15.4 million hours. That accounts to 7.5% of all class hours. It amounts to classes falling through due to missing teachers at a rate of once every two days. I will explain the third issue, the changed entrance exam system, a bit briefly. In the past, students could enter university simply by taking an exam called the Baccalauréat and using that score. Now, a system called Parcoursup has been added to the Baccalauréat. It is somewhat similar to our rolling admissions system. However, the admission criteria are unclear and poorly disclosed. There are also suspicions that a school grading system puts students from suburban, rural, and outskirts schools at a disadvantage. The fact that these protests started in suburban areas is precisely for that reason. Feeling that they are suffering reverse discrimination even in university entrance exams because they are in the outskirts where facilities are poorer and teacher support is even scarcer has caused them to flip out. As the student protests turned out longer and more agitated than expected, the political circle could not help but respond.

3. Is This Really Because the Country Has No Money?
The Prime Minister has met with student delegations, and the Minister of Education has been announcing countermeasures day after day. However, the French government appears to have little capacity to solve this problem. First of all, the school facility issue is a problem that must be solved with money. The teacher shortage problem likewise requires spending money to additionally hire teachers. However, France has no money. More than half of French schools were built before 1970. To repair these aging school buildings, the French government planned to invest 3 trillion won (approx. 2 billion USD) over five years. However, according to the teachers' union, 8 trillion won needs to be invested every year for 10 years to properly fix the aging schools. They say 40 trillion won is needed over the next five years, yet this country intends to spend only 3 trillion won. Furthermore, school buildings are the responsibility of local governments. With budgets already tight, the French government, suffering from its worst fiscal crisis, slashed 5.5 billion euros, or 8.2 trillion won, from the share allocated to local governments in next year's budget. Money to fix school facilities will undoubtedly be severely lacking. Let's look at the teacher shortage issue. Instead of increasing teachers, the French government is actually reducing them. This year alone, 4,000 regular teaching positions were cut. The government's logic is that as the student population declines, the number of teachers must also be reduced. At first glance, that logic might not sound entirely wrong, but as mentioned, France is a place where classes are canceled due to missing teachers once every two days. The student count is also overcrowded in a way that doesn't fit Europe. Among OECD member countries, only Japan has larger class sizes than France. Instead of using the declining student population to relieve overcrowded classrooms, they are using it to cut teacher numbers and save on labor costs. All of this is happening because this country has no money.

4. The 'Plot Twist' Behind the Teacher Shortage
And there is another reason why it feels like this country will truly never fix this problem. This is genuinely mind-boggling. As news spread of students suffering absurd hardships due to the teacher shortage, the Minister of Education hurriedly promised to deploy emergency substitute teachers. He announced that 3,000 teachers had been deployed immediately. Expecting perhaps to receive some praise for this, he was instead met with an immediate barrage of criticism. People asked where on earth those 3,000 teachers had been. It turned out they were not even temporary hires, but teachers employed fair and square as regular full-time staff. These 3,000 teachers had been continuing to receive their salaries while idling around because the district education office had failed to assign them to schools. It was revealed that it wasn't that there was a shortage of teachers, but rather that existing teachers were being left idle. Though it is another country's affair, it is truly baffling. The French government has earmarked 108 trillion won for the education budget in next year's budget plan. While formulating a budget for next year that slashes 71 trillion won overall because a money-strapped France is struggling, they have been complaining that education is the only budget besides defense that they increased, by nearly 2 trillion won. However, considering inflation, an education budget that is practically frozen seems insufficient to resolve this issue. Moreover, an amount like 108 trillion won is merely large in scale, and both the French government and the French people appear thoroughly lacking in the competence required to solve the problems currently facing French students.

(Reported by Kwon Yeongin | Produced by Shin Hee-suk | Video by Kim Si-nae | Video Editing by Ahn Jun-hyeok | Graphics by Yook Do-hyun | Produced by SBS Digital News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.