Murat SofuogluA wave of youth-led protests has swept across Europe, from France and Belgium to Spain, Portugal, Germany, Italy, Albania, and Greece, reflecting growing frustration among young people who feel the political establishment is increasingly ignoring their educational needs.
The protest in France began at the Saint-Exupéry high school in a Paris suburb before spreading to schools across the country.
French high school students and their peers across Europe have demanded better educational facilities, more teachers, smaller classes and adequate funding and learning resources.
While university students, trade unions, and other parts of French society have backed the protests and consider the demands legitimate, the demonstrations have also been marked by looting and violence, prompting President Emmanuel Macron to call on security forces to restore “calm and order”.
Emmanuel Dupuy, a French political scientist at the Catholic University of Lille, which has also witnessed these protests, says there is "a big difference" between earlier student protests and the violence that erupted over the weekend, when more than 3,000 stores were damaged or looted across France.
Videos also showed Limoges' historic town hall in flames.
While Dupuy describes the latest violent protests as riots, he sees student protests, from high schools to universities, as driven by legitimate demands over poor school conditions, from infrastructure to teacher shortages, and growing concerns about whether their education will help them secure jobs.
"The same sort of resentment" has become a powerful trend not only in France but also among young people in other European countries, the French professor tells TRT World
Beyond France, massive student protests erupted in Italy, with more than 400,000 people participating over the weekend, while similar protests against education budget cuts turned violent in Belgium.
“France reflects a wider European challenge affecting students, teachers and families,” Riyad Rogiest, a Ghent-based Belgian teacher, tells TRT World, referring to a growing education crisis across Europe.
This challenge is “particularly visible in schools serving socially disadvantaged communities”, where problems often accumulate, he adds.
“The anger we see in France is not simply about education budgets. It is also about young people who feel increasingly abandoned by the system.”
Education ‘falls victim’ to economics
Under Macron, a former Rothschild investment banker, the government has cut public spending, reduced corporate taxes and employer social contributions, and replaced the wealth tax with a narrower levy on property assets.
But France continues to face sluggish economic growth and mounting public debt, which reached 119.1 percent of GDP in the second quarter of 2026.
From the COVID-19 crisis to recent US-Europe tensions over NATO defence spending and ongoing escalations in the Strait of Hormuz, which have driven up energy prices, successive crises have put additional pressure on public finances, raising questions about governments' spending priorities, including investment in education.
These policies “have had some consequences and education is one of their victims,” Dupuy tells TRT World, referring to education spending cuts.
He says the current Macron government has not sufficiently considered the need to invest in education.
Dupuy also believes that the French education crisis extends beyond Macron’s governments.
“We haven't sufficiently invested in education over the last 20 years, and we're paying the price for that,” he says. “It has collapsed and is in very poor shape.”
While France and many developed European countries have long been admired by non-Western populations for their educational, economic and political standards, the current protests have shocked many international observers.
This international perception no longer reflects the realities on the ground in Europe, as "a sort of dream land" for non-European education "no longer exists in our countries," says Dupuy.
He also points to how the rise of AI has contributed to the decline of French education.
"New specialities like artificial intelligence are more linked to human resources, or management, which has never been a sort of French excellency," he says, noting that France has traditionally excelled in law and other social sciences.
Like France, other European countries also suffer from "the same reasons of shifting priorities" from education to sectors such as health, defence and AI, Dupuy adds.
"We didn't understand how low our investment was in education. But the situation is now so dire that there was an obligation to improve conditions for the sake of the new generation," he says.
‘Teachers are overwhelmed’
Among other measures, France's draft 2027 budget, which proposes eliminating 1,588 teaching posts in a country already facing overcrowded classrooms and teacher shortages, has drawn criticism from teachers' unions amid growing student unrest.
In 2019, Macron's proposed pension reforms sparked widespread protests, adding to public anger after the Yellow Vest movement began in 2018 over fuel tax increases.
Despite continued opposition, Macron's government enacted a new pension reform in 2023, gradually raising the retirement age from 62 to 64, although the timetable was subsequently suspended until 2028.
But Macron’s position has been significantly weakened in recent years, as his decision to call snap elections in 2024 led to a divided parliament and further weakened his centrist allies. Since then, France has seen repeated changes of prime minister, with successive governments struggling to secure parliamentary support.
Amid growing protests, Education Minister Édouard Geffray announced plans to deploy 3,000 substitute teachers to schools facing shortages, a measure backed by Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu.
But experts say this may not resolve the structural problems facing education systems in France and other European countries.
“We are facing a serious teacher shortage, while the teaching profession is becoming less attractive. Teachers are increasingly expected to be educators, psychologists, social workers, mediators and administrators simultaneously. Many experience exhaustion or burnout,” Rogiest says.
On the other hand, many young people carry frustrations from home into the classroom, as financial difficulties, family conflicts, parental separation, social media and a lack of emotional support deeply affect their behaviour and motivation, he adds.
These behavioural problems require additional meetings, administrative reports, and constant follow-up, leaving less time for teaching and personal interaction with students.
In Belgium, for example, new rules introduced in September 2026 require secondary schools, in principle, to organise supervision or alternative activities when lessons are cancelled.
Although limited exceptions exist, Rogiest says this creates additional organisational pressure on teachers.
He also notes that the current digital age makes his job difficult in certain ways, as students are increasingly influenced by social media and constant digital stimulation, which creates unrealistic teaching expectations.
“We expect teachers to solve society's problems inside the classroom, while giving them fewer resources and less time to build relationships with their students,” he says.
“This is neither fair to teachers nor beneficial to children.”
Future of European education
Europe has been facing not only rising inflation, which has increased the cost of living, but also growing political divisions between left-wing and far-right groups, both of which accuse mainstream politics of social and economic problems.
While worsening economic conditions hit classrooms, leading to various cuts in the educational sector, political divisions do not help countries meet the new generation’s demands, exposing deep social insecurity in the new digital age.
“European education has many strengths, but I am deeply concerned about its increasing focus on economic productivity rather than human development,” Rogiest says.
“Historically, we spoke about the humaniora: an educational tradition that sought to develop the whole human being, intellectually, morally, culturally and socially.”
But today, education is increasingly reduced to obtaining qualifications, entering the labour market, becoming economically productive, and paying taxes, he adds.
While earning a decent salary is important for a decent life, education must be much more than professional training, according to Rogiest.
“We should not only ask what profession our students will have, but what kind of human beings they will become.”
From this perspective, Rogiest says the future of European education depends on restoring its human dimension.
“We need smaller classes, better support for teachers, more investment in mental health and stronger cooperation between schools and families.”
While digital education and artificial intelligence offer enormous opportunities, young people “need guidance in developing concentration, discipline, empathy, responsibility and critical thinking,” he says.
Without these fundamental skills, modern technologies will help students little, he adds. This also requires restoring the dignity and attractiveness of the teaching profession.
“Education should not simply produce skilled workers for the economy,” Rogiest tells TRT World.
“It should develop responsible, compassionate and thoughtful human beings who can contribute positively to society. That is the educational vision Europe needs to rediscover.”
