"How Dare They Touch College Admissions!" Why French Students' Protests Sparked Outrage

1. Witnessing the Fire and Chaos of French Student Protests Firsthand
Scenes of students setting fires, smashing windows, and destroying cars in downtown France have been broadcast live around the world. Police responded by firing tear gas, beating protesters with batons, and even deploying water cannons. I visited the scene myself, and it was quite a tense atmosphere with stones flying right past my feet. As these protests 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 make up a large portion of that number as well, with 1,923. More than 800 police officers have also been injured. There are roughly 3,700 high schools in France, and protests broke out in more than a third of them during this period. Local media are reporting that this is the largest student protest since the one in 1998.

2. Why Are French Students So Angry?
So why exactly are French students so angry? There are three main reasons: first, poor school facilities; second, a severely lacking number of teachers; and third, changes to the college admission system. Let us start with the poor school facilities. I went out to the protest sites and listened to some of the students' grievances, and the condition of French schools was more serious than expected. One student said that mice and cockroaches crawl around the classrooms during lessons. Another mentioned that the ceiling had a hole in it and was leaking when it rained.

[Anoub / French Student: We came out because we are angry. The younger generation in France is now exhausted. Some students study with 40 people in a single classroom. Some students have to stay in the hallways, and in some places, the ceilings look like they are about to collapse.]

On top of that, Europe suffered from severe heatwaves exceeding 40°C (104°F) this past summer. June, right before the vacation, was also terrible. Yet, schools do not have air conditioning, and many do not even have fans. Some students also said that because heating facilities are lacking in the winter and they felt cold, they were simply told to wear more layers of clothing. From our perspective, none of these excuses are easy to accept. Yet, this is the current reality of French schools. Another issue is the shortage of teachers, which is truly absurd. Students stated that when teachers need to take time off due to illness, childbirth, or sudden leave, substitute teachers are frequently unavailable to fill the gaps. These vacancies do not just last a day or two; it is common for teaching positions to remain vacant for three or four months. Some students even had to take exams without receiving proper lessons because core subjects like French or mathematics were left without teachers for three to four months. When calculating all the hours that classes could not be held due to a lack of teachers across France during the 2024-2025 academic year, it totaled 15.4 million hours. This amounts to 7.5% of all class hours, meaning classes are canceled due to missing teachers about once every two days.

The third issue, the changed admissions system, can be explained briefly. In the past, students only had to take an exam called the Baccalauréat and use those scores to enter university. Now, a system called Parcoursup has been added to the Baccalauréat, which is similar to our rolling admissions system. However, the admission criteria are unclear and not transparently disclosed. There are also suspicions that a school grading system exists, which puts students from peripheral, rural, and outer-suburban schools at a disadvantage. This is precisely why the protests started in the outer regions. Feeling that they face reverse discrimination in college entrance exams simply because they are in outer areas with poor facilities and inadequate teacher support, they reached a boiling point. As the student protests grew longer and more intense than expected, the political sphere could not help but respond.

3. Is This All Because the Country Lacks Money?
The Prime Minister has met with a student delegation, and the Minister of Education continues to announce 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 requires money to fix. The teacher shortage similarly requires spending money to hire additional educators. However, France does not have the money. More than half of French schools were built before 1970. To repair these aging school buildings, the French government originally planned to invest 3 trillion won over five years. However, according to teachers' unions, it would take 8 trillion won every year for 10 years to properly fix the old schools, meaning 40 trillion won is needed over the next five years, yet the country intends to spend only 3 trillion won. Furthermore, local governments are in charge of school buildings. With budgets already tight, the French government, suffering from its worst financial crisis, slashed the local government share by 5.5 billion euros, or 8.2 trillion won, in next year's budget proposal. Finding funds to repair school facilities will undoubtedly fall short. Looking at the teacher shortage, the French government is actually reducing teacher positions rather than increasing them. This year alone, 4,000 permanent teaching positions were cut. The government's logic is that the number of teachers should decrease as the student population shrinks. While that may not sound entirely wrong at first glance, France is a place where classes are canceled every other day due to a lack of teachers, as mentioned earlier. The student-to-teacher ratio is also crowded, which is unusual for Europe. Among OECD member countries, only Japan has larger class sizes than France. Instead of using the declining student population to alleviate overcrowded classrooms, the government is exploiting it to cut teacher numbers and save on labor costs. All of this is happening because the country lacks money.

4. A "Plot Twist" After Claiming a Teacher Shortage
There is another reason why it feels like this country will truly never fix the problem, and it is genuinely baffling. As reports spread about students suffering absurdly due to a shortage of teachers, the Minister of Education hurriedly promised to deploy emergency substitute teachers and announced that 3,000 teachers had been immediately dispatched. They probably expected some praise for this, but criticism poured in almost immediately. People asked where on earth those 3,000 teachers had been. It turned out they were not even temporary workers, but fully employed permanent teachers. These 3,000 teachers had been receiving their salaries continuously while simply sitting around because regional education offices had failed to assign them to schools. It was revealed that it was not a lack of teachers, but rather that teachers were available yet left idle. It is completely absurd, even if it is happening in another country. The French government set aside 108 trillion won for education in next year's budget. While putting together a budget proposal for next year that slashes spending by 71 trillion won due to financial shortages, France increased its education budget by nearly 2 trillion won, complaining that education was the only sector besides defense to receive a budget hike. However, considering inflation rates, the education budget remains virtually frozen, making it insufficient to solve the problem. Moreover, the 108 trillion won is merely a large lump sum, and both the French government and the French people seem entirely ill-equipped to resolve the current struggles of 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.