Violence is terrible, but French pupils are right to protest

Amid the horrific rioting, looting and acts of arson that have been blighting France this autumn, it is easy to forget how and why it all started. It was certainly not hardline anarchists or street criminals who originally created mayhem from Paris to Marseille, and from Bordeaux to Lyon.

Revolution of the pupils

Instead, it was just a few weeks after the traditional return to lessons following summer – la rentrée – that high school pupils began to express their anger at the country’s crumbling education system. As so often happens with protest movements in the home of world-famous revolutions, peaceful outrage soon turned to something far more sinister. Police moved in to break up blockades around lycées – where pupils aged 15 to 18 are educated – and those manning them resisted.

Fires were lit inside wheelie bins; graffiti was sprayed across walls. In turn, tear gas was unleashed by riot police, and then the rebellion spread nationwide. By mid-October, thousands had been arrested, and the government was introducing localised curfews in some cities, while deploying more gendarmes.

The chaos was frightening, but this does not detract from the legitimate complaints first raised. Speak to any high school pupils, and their teachers and support staff, and they will point you to an education system that is blighted by endemic problems.

The issues at stake

Class sizes are far too big – sometimes as many as 35 students are packed into a single room. Buildings which were often built hastily after World War Two, or which go back hundreds of years, are in disrepair, with holes in the ceiling letting in the rain, and rodents running freely.

Even the furniture, including desks and chairs, is falling apart. Sometimes there are not enough of either to go round, so they have to be carried from one classroom to another. Rooms can be freezing in winter, and far too hot in summer.

Teacher absence is another chronic problem – morale is so low in the system that some teachers stay away for weeks and even months at a time, often citing psychological or other health issues. Students in Seine-Saint-Denis – north of Paris and one of the poorest departments in France – lose the equivalent of about a year of schooling over their school career because absent teachers are not replaced.

Why injustice should be challenged

Just as scandalously, regular academic studies show that children born in deprived parts of France, and especially the housing estates, are chronically discriminated against. Someone schooled in a deprived area has far less chance of escaping his or her socioeconomic background than in other developed nations, according to a recent report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Eric Charbonnier, an education analyst working for the organisation, confirmed that “disadvantaged students are in disadvantaged schools” and that “this has raised issues of the quality of learning being delivered and higher absenteeism of teachers”. Youngsters are certainly segregated by their background, postcode and family income, and this has a direct impact on their future prospects. Too many feel that if you cannot get a job as a multimillion-euro footballer, then a post in a bakery or sports shop is about the most they can hope to look forward to.

More than a decade after former prime minister Manuel Valls spoke of a “geographical, social, ethnic apartheid” blighting the country, his comments remain as true as ever. In such circumstances, it is entirely appropriate that youngsters have taken to the barricades in a Republic that is meant to offer them liberty, equality and fraternity. Protest does not have to be violent, but injustice should always be challenged.