Oct 19, 2026 · 19 min · 7 segments
So it's (still) all kicking off in France. Youth protests hit boiling point this weekend, with over 2,000 people arrested across the country. And yet, it’s not just France. Back in Spring, we saw, in…
Tom NicholasHost
And look, I'm aware it's tempting to say, oh wow, what is this, a Monday? But these protests have been huge.
It's apparently because when schooling was starting to become a thing, you wanted it to not be when the main kind of farming stuff was happening.
So that's why most countries have like a longer holiday in their summer so that the kids can work.
Protesting students cited concerns over understaffing, with lessons often taking place with no teachers.
The school day in France is often 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the lycée level, as well as underfunded facilities.
There is also significant anger surrounding Parcoursup, the system through which French high schoolers apply to university.
Is it because, like, you're going over something? Parcours? Parkour, I don't know.
However, French students are angry that the system can be really opaque in terms of what it takes into account and then for what university you can get into.
They also say the system tends to embed the inequalities of students as they imply, giving students who go to well-funded schools lots of options and penalizing others.
Finally, students also expressed fears surrounding conditions in their school during winter.
During the heights of the summer, some of the classrooms had reached 40 degrees centigrade due to a lack of air conditioning and climate control.
From Clete, protests began to spread to other lycées throughout the country, spurred on by images and videos spreading over social media.
the tactic of choice was the blockade, with students denying anyone the ability to enter their schools.
Things then cranked up a notch towards the end of September, when what had previously been a more sporadic movement was given some more formal direction by the USL, which is a kind of trade union for high school kids? The 29th of September saw the USL hold a National Day of Action in which school pupils across the country were invited to blockade their schools, and to considerable success.
The school kids were then joined by trade unionists and others who wanted to show their support.
And look, I'm aware it's tempting to say, oh wow, what is this, a Monday? But these protests have been huge.
It's apparently because when schooling was starting to become a thing, you wanted it to not be when the main kind of farming stuff was happening.
So that's why most countries have like a longer holiday in their summer so that the kids can work.
Protesting students cited concerns over understaffing, with lessons often taking place with no teachers.
The school day in France is often 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the lycée level, as well as underfunded facilities.
There is also significant anger surrounding Parcoursup, the system through which French high schoolers apply to university.
Is it because, like, you're going over something? Parcours? Parkour, I don't know.
However, French students are angry that the system can be really opaque in terms of what it takes into account and then for what university you can get into.
They also say the system tends to embed the inequalities of students as they imply, giving students who go to well-funded schools lots of options and penalizing others.
Finally, students also expressed fears surrounding conditions in their school during winter.
During the heights of the summer, some of the classrooms had reached 40 degrees centigrade due to a lack of air conditioning and climate control.
From Clete, protests began to spread to other lycées throughout the country, spurred on by images and videos spreading over social media.
the tactic of choice was the blockade, with students denying anyone the ability to enter their schools.
Things then cranked up a notch towards the end of September, when what had previously been a more sporadic movement was given some more formal direction by the USL, which is a kind of trade union for high school kids? The 29th of September saw the USL hold a National Day of Action in which school pupils across the country were invited to blockade their schools, and to considerable success.
The school kids were then joined by trade unionists and others who wanted to show their support.
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