After several days of high school blockades, the movement is set to enter a new phase on Tuesday, October 13 2026. Teenage and student organizations are calling to take to the streets, while FCPE and many education unions have joined the appeal. The movement, born on September 21 at Saint-Exupéry High School in Créteil, has since spread across France. But behind the images of barricades in front of schools, what exactly are the demands?
The current wave of protests traces back to the Val-de-Marne. In mid-September, staff at Saint-Exupéry High School in Créteil went on strike to protest a shortage of staff. The next day, around 200 students also blocked their own school in solidarity with the teachers. Footage circulated on social media, and other high schools gradually joined the movement.
The phenomenon then rapidly scaled up. About 410 high schools were already protesting on September 29. By October 1, more than 200 high schools were disrupted, all within Île-de-France. The movement then reached more than 1,000 institutions nationwide at the height of the week. On Friday, October 2, the ministry still counted 735 disrupted high schools, a figure down by about 30% from the day before.
During the day of mobilization, on Tuesday, October 6, 2026, high school students and university students again demonstrated in Paris and in several French cities. In Île-de-France, the movement led to university blockades, notably at Paris 1, Paris 8, Paris Cité and Nanterre, as well as disruptions in several high schools.
According to the government’s tally, about 266,000 people demonstrated across France, including 56,000 in Paris, versus organizers’ estimates of 450,000 nationwide and 100,000 in the capital. The Ministry of National Education also reported 891 high schools where classes were wholly or partly suspended, while roughly 40% of public higher education institutions experienced disruptions.
The first demand concerns the human resources allocated to schools. The mobilized high school students, in particular, denounce teachers who are absent or not replaced, but also a shortage of school nurses, psychologists, social workers, and supervisory staff.
However, demands are not perfectly identical from one high school to another. The movement has grown in a largely decentralized way, and some requests address issues specific to each institution. Unions, however, highlight several common themes: class sizes, staff shortages, timetables, and the financial resources allocated to the Ministry of National Education.
After meeting with high school student representatives on October 2, Education Minister Édouard Geffray announced plans to speed up staff replacements by prioritizing exam-year classes, along with the planned creation of 300 additional positions for school nurses, educational psychologists, and social workers in the budget bill.
Since then, Édouard Geffray has outlined his emergency plan: on October 8 he announced the deployment of 3,000 replacement teachers, additional resources for short-term substitutions, and the ability for rectorates to recruit on an emergency basis. At a union meeting on October 9, he also mentioned recruiting nearly 1,000 contract workers and allocating 18,000 additional units of the Teacher Pact. These measures remain to be rolled out, and their effectiveness will need to be evaluated.
But the protests go beyond the question of job openings. High school students are denouncing overpacked timetables, the length of the school day, and the pressure felt around guidance and Parcoursup. The higher education admissions system crystallizes part of the criticism, particularly among terminale students.
Testimonies gathered from several institutions point to a climate of stress surrounding the selection process and the uncertainty about admissions to higher education. Mental health is thus among the issues raised by high school representatives during their meeting with the minister, alongside human resources, class schedules, and the state of the buildings.
Another recurring topic: the school infrastructure. Students report aging or deteriorating facilities, with conditions varying greatly by region. This issue is peculiar since the upkeep and construction of high schools mainly fall to regional authorities, not directly to the Ministry of National Education.
The sense of inequality between schools and territories is also fueling the mobilization. In Seine-Saint-Denis in particular, students surveyed contrast their study conditions with those of Parisian schools deemed better equipped.
The blockade is used by mobilized high school students as a way to make their movement visible and to disrupt the normal operation of schools. However, one should not automatically equate mobilization, blockage and administrative closure: some institutions can be blocked without being officially closed, while others are closed preventively by the authorities.
A new call for strike and protest has been issued for Tuesday, October 13, 2026, led by high school and student groups and backed by several national education unions, including FSU, UNSA Éducation, CGT Éduc'action, FO, CFDT, and SUD Éducation. Despite the Education Minister Édouard Geffray's initial remarks, the mobilized organizations are demanding more resources for schools, more staffing, and better learning conditions.
In Paris, a demonstration is scheduled to depart from Place d'Italie at 2 p.m., while strikes and blockades could once again disrupt certain high schools and universities in Île-de-France.
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