Violent student unrest in France rages as protestors demand better classroom conditions, clash with riot police

The mass student protests rocking France have spurred violent clashes with police and thousands of arrests — and is the most explosive uprising the nation has seen in nearly 60 years.The demonstrations over classroom conditions, which have carried on for weeks and disrupted lessons at hundreds of schools, have swelled with shocking video showing protestors flashing flamethrowers and burning people as they face off with riot police.

A 15-year-old student lost a hand Monday after picking up a police grenade during the protests, AFP reported.The issues inside France’s schools have been brewing since at least 2010, when the country saw a notable fertility spike, with women having on average two to three children that are now high school-aged, records show.The country was ill-equipped to handle the influx as thousands of job cuts hit middle schools and high schools due to budget-saving policies enacted by President Emmanuel Macron.To date, secondary schools have fewer teachers than they did in 2008 while also needing to meet the demand of 250,000 more students in the school system.

The French Ministry of Education has also been hit with a recruitment crisis in recent years, with classrooms forced to merge to larger and larger sizes.In public schools, 70% of classrooms have more than 30 pupils per class, and 20% have more than 35.Along with the lack of staffing and resources, students are also fed up with the country’s dilapidated school facilities, which were highlighted during this year’s record heatwave.French high schools are on average 61 years old, and only 15% of all school buildings in the nation have been built or renovated since 2015.

Tensions eventually boiled over at the Saint-Exupéry high school, outside Paris, on Sept.21, where students and teachers held the first protests to demand an increase in staffing.The demonstration ended without incident and the demands were met by the district, but it ended up as a flashpoint that triggered hundreds of...