Student and trade union protests continued across France on Tuesday 13 October 2026, with school and university students, teachers and trade unionists calling for better study conditions and more teachers and staff in educational institutions, while clashes between police forces and protesters resumed on the fringes of some marches.
Diverging estimates of turnout
The General Confederation of Labour said secondary-school and university students led the mobilisation with the support of teachers and trade unionists, noting that, according to its estimates, the demonstrations on 6, 8 and 13 October drew more than one million participants in total. The union said it would continue supporting the student movement and pressing for a government response to its demands.
Large marches and clashes in Paris
Thousands took part in marches held in Paris, Saint-Denis, Nantes, Lyon, Lens, Strasbourg, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Marseille and other cities. The marches included university students, teachers and trade union leaders, as well as secondary-school students who began their movement by blocking the entrances to several educational institutions. Although most demonstrations passed without incident, clashes broke out on the fringes of one of the two marches held in Paris.
Police fired tear gas after masked youths tried to erect roadblocks and threw various objects at security forces, while cars were set alight. Other cities, including Lyon and Nantes, also saw tensions and the use of tear gas.
Debate over the use of force and internal investigations
Political debate intensified over the way the government and its security agencies were handling the crisis, with student and trade union organisations accusing police of using disproportionate force against protesters. The government, meanwhile, said the intervention by security forces was aimed at confronting violence and vandalism and protecting educational institutions and people attending the gatherings. Authorities announced internal investigations into 34 allegations involving the use of violence against protesters.
The government had suspended the use of one type of stun grenade during the handling of the protests after a 15-year-old student lost a hand when he picked up a grenade used by police during earlier clashes. Other serious injuries among young people were also recorded, including the loss of an eye and facial and dental injuries.
The Education Ministry said 147 employees of educational institutions had been injured since the protests began, while the government reported that hundreds of police officers had been injured without specifying the nature of their injuries. The ministry said 214 educational institutions, most of them secondary schools, were closed during Tuesday’s mobilisation. A university student union said 90% of universities had closed in support of the movement; this was the union’s estimate.
By contrast, Education Ministry data showed that the strike participation rate among education-sector employees was 3.71%, rising to 4.52% among teachers and 10.31% among school-life staff. According to the ministry, participation stood at 3.92% in primary schools, 5.31% in lower-secondary schools, 5.18% in general and technological upper-secondary schools, and 2.55% in vocational upper-secondary schools.
Movement began at a school in Créteil
These estimates did not cover some areas because of holidays or time differences. The protest movement began in September at a secondary school in the south-eastern Paris suburb of Créteil over staff shortages, before spreading to other suburbs and then to several French cities.
The mobilisation later expanded to include school strikes, institutional closures and marches involving university students, teachers and trade unions. Students are calling for staff shortages to be addressed, dilapidated buildings to be renovated, overcrowded classrooms to be reduced and timetables to be improved.
Some also criticise the length of the school day and the difficulty of the university admissions system, while participating organisations are demanding increased grants and housing assistance and more places in higher education institutions. The government had pledged to bring in 3,000 substitute teachers and assign them to 114 institutions considered among the worst affected by staff shortages.
However, student and trade union organisations considered the measure insufficient and called for a broader recruitment plan covering teachers as well as health, counselling and support staff in schools and universities. The Education Ministry launched national consultations running until 23 October and invited secondary-school students to present their difficulties, expectations and proposals.
Educational institutions also set aside half a day for internal dialogue, while the rest of the lessons continued. Participants say they want to keep their demands in the public debate and continue pressing for a concrete government response. Trade unions say the government consultations have so far produced no solutions matching the scale of the problems, while the government insists on dialogue and says addressing the crisis requires time and discussion.
A 16-year-old student in Marseille said participants wanted concrete measures and appropriate dialogue rather than a security response, while another student, aged 17, said protesters felt the government was not listening to them. Other students reaffirmed their intention to continue closing institutions and holding protests after the half-term holiday in late October.
The student mobilisation coincides with preparations by trade unions and social groups for further actions linked to wages, rising living costs and prices, and public-service funding. The participating organisations are seeking to combine student demands with workers’ mobilisation as the government faces political and economic pressure over plans to cut spending and the public budget.
