Greta Thunberg Joins 160,000 French Students as School Protests Enter Third Week

More than 160,000 schoolchildren, students and trade unionists marched across France on Tuesday as protests over high school education entered their third week [261648]. Swedish activist Greta Thunberg joined teenagers in calling for investment to fix teacher shortages and crumbling schools [261648].

The demonstrations, which took place in cities including Lyon, Lille and Marseille, were mostly peaceful, though riot police fired teargas at the end of marches in Nantes and near the Montparnasse area of Paris [261648]. Many demonstrators also denounced police tactics [261648].

Students in a Paris suburb say they are desperate to return to class, but conditions are so poor that protests must continue [259647]. Mohammed, 17, wakes at 6am on school days to care for his younger siblings before taking two crowded buses and a local train to reach his high school in Sevran, a low-income banlieue north-east of Paris [259647].

"There aren't enough chairs or desks to go round, so some students have to stand up," Mohammed said. "Classes can be so packed you can't interact with the teacher" [259647]. He added that during this year's heatwaves, temperatures felt like 40 degrees in overcrowded classrooms with no shade or curtains [259647].

The protests reflect deep anxiety about the future of the school system [261179]. The real threat to French children's education is not student involvement, but underfunded school policies and authorities that have stopped listening [261179].

A society loses greatly when it writes off children from poor neighborhoods, according to educator Eleonor Rosenlind [261178]. In a strong democracy, citizens have the right to protest and to demand a working school for everyone [261178].

The unrest in France stands in contrast to other countries where students have not mobilized in similar numbers [259576]. In France, children learn early about the revolutionary roots of their nation and what the state owes its citizens [259576].

Similar concerns about education funding and conditions have emerged elsewhere. In Sweden, a high school student is speaking out against unequal study funding, arguing it is unfair that university students received increased study grants to match inflation while high school students did not [259194]. In South Africa, teachers are quitting at rising rates due to burnout, with calls for schools to build collaborative support networks and mentorship programs to keep educators in the profession [261286].

In Nigeria, a concerned citizen has petitioned the government over poor facilities at Garba Daho Primary School in Jos North Local Government Area of Plateau State, where pupils learn while sitting on bare floors, raising concerns about their health and safety [261089].

The choice facing governments, according to one perspective, is clear: invest in schools or invest in prisons [260115]. If schools received more resources, more students would be seen and more teachers could do their jobs without damaging their own health [260115].