Inside France: Burning bins and smart slogans at French student protests

Student protests have been ongoing in France since the end of last month, with hundreds of thousands of students taking to the streets to demand better education and school conditions. The protests, which began at the Lycée Antoine-de-Saint-Exupéry in the Paris suburb of Créteil, have been sparked by issues such as staff shortages, dilapidated facilities, absent teachers, overloaded timetables, and inadequate classrooms.

According to a 16-year-old student, the problems in his school include a lack of chairs, with students having to search for them at the start of every lesson, and overcrowding in the canteen, where 2,000 students have only 50 minutes to eat. The protests have turned violent, with students burning bins and chanting slogans, and police responding with tear gas, batons, and blast balls.

The United Nations has expressed concern over the sometimes violent clashes, and the French government has reported that at least 30 million euros in damage has been caused by the demonstrations, with over 6,800 people detained, 86 per cent of whom are minors, according to the Channel News Asia.

Brief written by urgent.news from The Local France, BBC News, Channel News Asia — 3 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.