Students, teachers march in France on biggest day of school protests

Students, teachers and parents marched in cites across France on Tuesday (October 6, 2026) and protesters blockaded hundreds of schools, in the ‌biggest day of action in a wave of demonstrations demanding the government tackle understaffed and ​dilapidated classrooms.

In Marseille, Nantes and Lyon, the street protests began peacefully mid-morning, with the ⁠largest demonstration expected in Paris in the afternoon.

Youngsters held aloft smoke flares and placards reading “Under our school books, anger” and “Where are the politicians? Do they even know we exist?”

Tuesday’s demonstrations come after a fortnight of protests which began in Paris’s ‌deprived suburbs before spreading across the country. The government responded with riot police, saying the movement had now morphed into urban violence.