The two-week Toussaint (All Saints') school holiday ended on Monday, 2 November. Students returned to class and many of them blocked their schools straight away. To understand why the government's concessions have not ended a movement that began in mid-September, look at two things: what was offered, and what the students actually asked for.
Wheelie bins at the gates
The French blocus is an old ritual. Students pile up whatever they can find in front of the school gates, and the bins are always the easiest thing to grab. On 2 November, AFP photographers saw the entrance of the Montgrand high school in central Marseille blocked by several stacked garbage bins, and bins blocking the Ampère high school in Lyon.
The two sides then started arguing over the numbers, as they always do. The Union syndicale lycéenne counted "more than 150 high schools mobilised" with a "total or filtering blockade". The education ministry said 41 high schools were blocked, about 1% of France's roughly 3,700, with no disruption in three quarters of départements. Education Minister Édouard Geffray called it "a priori fairly residual". That was a risky word to use about a movement that has repeatedly come back after being written off.
The student union UNEF went further. It promised "a black day for the universities" on Tuesday, 3 November, with blockades in protest at the ban on the Paris route, and a march planned in Paris at 2 p.m.
Why the offer was called "crumbs"
On Monday, 26 October, the government made what it saw as a serious offer. It promised to phase out Parcoursup by 2028, cancel the planned job cuts in national education, create 500 extra posts, cap Year 10 (seconde) classes at 28 pupils, and add 15,000 places in higher education. The extra places break down into 10,000 in BTS, 4,000 in BUT (mainly in Île-de-France) and 1,000 in health-access degrees. BTS and BUT are the short, job-focused two- and three-year courses. Many working-class students who get rejected through Parcoursup end up fighting over places in exactly these courses.
The problem is scale. The youth alliance of USL, UNEF, FAGE and Union étudiante wants €10 billion invested in education and higher education and Parcoursup abolished outright. Next to €10 billion, 500 posts looks tiny. And "replacing" Parcoursup with an undesigned system is not the same as abolishing it. Anton, a 17-year-old at the Berthelot high school, told AFP the movement would not be stopped by "two government announcements that will be out of date in a few months". That fear has a basis: France's presidential election is in April 2027, and a new government could drop promises set for 2028.
Teachers are cautious too. The SE-Unsa union wants "guarantees on the funding of the announcements and their implementation". The government's answer is that money is already flowing. It says that never has the nation invested so much in education and higher education, two of the few ministries whose budgets will still rise next year. It also promises that a reform committee of students and teachers will present first recommendations during November.
From blockades to a general strike
The students have chosen their timing carefully. Union étudiante spokesperson Sabrine Kharbach said they would block on Tuesday and again on Thursday, then join the 5 November march called by workers. This is the convergence French unions hope for most: schoolchildren and wage-earners in the streets on the same day. According to NVO, the CGT's magazine, more than 200 strikes and demonstrations are announced for Thursday, 5 November. The CGT wants to generalise the strike and demonstrate everywhere in France for wage rises and a different state and social-security budget.
The fight over the route continues. In Paris, the march is meant to go from Bastille to Concorde, but the route is still awaiting approval and could again be pushed onto an alternative route like the last two Saturdays. CGT leader Sophie Binet's complaint was simple: "A demonstration has to be seen."
The two-week Toussaint (All Saints') school holiday ended on Monday, 2 November. Students returned to class and many of them blocked their schools straight away. To understand why the government's concessions have not ended a movement that began in mid-September, look at two things: what was offered, and what the students actually asked for.
Wheelie bins at the gates
The French blocus is an old ritual. Students pile up whatever they can find in front of the school gates, and the bins are always the easiest thing to grab. On 2 November, AFP photographers saw the entrance of the Montgrand high school in central Marseille blocked by several stacked garbage bins, and bins blocking the Ampère high school in Lyon.
The two sides then started arguing over the numbers, as they always do. The Union syndicale lycéenne counted "more than 150 high schools mobilised" with a "total or filtering blockade". The education ministry said 41 high schools were blocked, about 1% of France's roughly 3,700, with no disruption in three quarters of départements. Education Minister Édouard Geffray called it "a priori fairly residual". That was a risky word to use about a movement that has repeatedly come back after being written off.
The student union UNEF went further. It promised "a black day for the universities" on Tuesday, 3 November, with blockades in protest at the ban on the Paris route, and a march planned in Paris at 2 p.m.
Why the offer was called "crumbs"
On Monday, 26 October, the government made what it saw as a serious offer. It promised to phase out Parcoursup by 2028, cancel the planned job cuts in national education, create 500 extra posts, cap Year 10 (seconde) classes at 28 pupils, and add 15,000 places in higher education. The extra places break down into 10,000 in BTS, 4,000 in BUT (mainly in Île-de-France) and 1,000 in health-access degrees. BTS and BUT are the short, job-focused two- and three-year courses. Many working-class students who get rejected through Parcoursup end up fighting over places in exactly these courses.
The problem is scale. The youth alliance of USL, UNEF, FAGE and Union étudiante wants €10 billion invested in education and higher education and Parcoursup abolished outright. Next to €10 billion, 500 posts looks tiny. And "replacing" Parcoursup with an undesigned system is not the same as abolishing it. Anton, a 17-year-old at the Berthelot high school, told AFP the movement would not be stopped by "two government announcements that will be out of date in a few months". That fear has a basis: France's presidential election is in April 2027, and a new government could drop promises set for 2028.
Teachers are cautious too. The SE-Unsa union wants "guarantees on the funding of the announcements and their implementation". The government's answer is that money is already flowing. It says that never has the nation invested so much in education and higher education, two of the few ministries whose budgets will still rise next year. It also promises that a reform committee of students and teachers will present first recommendations during November.
From blockades to a general strike
The students have chosen their timing carefully. Union étudiante spokesperson Sabrine Kharbach said they would block on Tuesday and again on Thursday, then join the 5 November march called by workers. This is the convergence French unions hope for most: schoolchildren and wage-earners in the streets on the same day. According to NVO, the CGT's magazine, more than 200 strikes and demonstrations are announced for Thursday, 5 November. The CGT wants to generalise the strike and demonstrate everywhere in France for wage rises and a different state and social-security budget.
The fight over the route continues. In Paris, the march is meant to go from Bastille to Concorde, but the route is still awaiting approval and could again be pushed onto an alternative route like the last two Saturdays. CGT leader Sophie Binet's complaint was simple: "A demonstration has to be seen."
Sources