What started as a student walkout in the Paris region in mid-September has grown into one of France’s most significant civil disturbances in years.
Tens of thousands of demonstrators — students, parents, and teachers — took to the streets across Marseille, Nantes, Lyon and Toulouse demanding better education funding and school resources. Banners read: “Schools with no money, country with no future.”
Over two weeks, authorities recorded more than 6,100 arrests. The vast majority were minors. Classes were fully or partially suspended at 891 schools, according to the French Education Ministry.
The grievances behind the movement are specific: crumbling classrooms without basic furniture, chronic substitute teacher shortages, heavy workloads, and inequitable resourcing in schools serving disadvantaged communities.
The proposed 2027 French budget offered education a 1.7% increase – below the inflation rate. This takes place even as national debt servicing costs were projected to reach €74.5 billion, according to Reuters reporting dated 2 October 2026.
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said the police response had been proportionate in “almost all cases.” His ministry launched an online portal inviting students to anonymously submit their concerns.
What does France’s education funding crisis mean for Australian school leaders?
France’s education funding crisis raises a question closer to home — Australia’s public schools are contending with some of the same pressures.
The OECD’s Education at a Glance 2026 report, released on 29 September 2026 with a special focus on teacher shortages, found that more than 40% of Australian secondary school principals report that teacher shortages are hurting the quality of education in their schools.
The OECD’s 2024 Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) found that 58.1% of Australian public school principals report teacher shortages hindering instruction. That figure is more than double the OECD average, based on analysis by the Australian Education Union.
Lower-secondary teachers in Australia average 46.4 hours per week, a full five hours above the OECD average.
The conditions French students are protesting – chronic teacher shortages and under-resourced schools – are documented pressures in Australia’s public school system as well.
How are Australian school leaders responding?
Where French students have taken to the streets, Australian school leaders and unions have pursued change through formal and industrial channels — with measurable results.
In Victoria, a year-long industrial dispute ended in August 2026 when 79% of Australian Education Union (AEU) members voted to accept a new pay agreement. The deal delivers pay rises of between 28.3% and 32.4% over four years. The deal followed two statewide strikes and a rejected offer. It was the first time in more than 40 years that Victorian teachers had voted down a union-endorsed deal.
AEU Victorian Branch president Justin Mullaly said the outcome delivered real pay increases and real improvements to conditions.
“This outcome has been won through the direct efforts of AEU members, who demanded pay and conditions that reflect the value and importance of their work in Victorian public schools,” Mullaly said.
At the national level, the ASPA 2026 policy briefing outlines the evidence-based priorities that Australia’s secondary school leaders are putting to government. These priorities cover funding accountability, workforce sustainability, and curriculum reform.
A shared challenge in education funding
France and Australia are grappling with the same underlying pressures — teacher shortages, under-resourced schools, and the widening gap between what disadvantaged students need and what their schools can provide. The OECD’s 2026 data confirms these are not isolated national problems but structural challenges facing education systems across the developed world.
The differences lie in method and momentum. In France, a decade of constrained public education spending and unaddressed workforce pressures culminated in students and teachers taking to the streets.
In Australia, the same pressures have produced enterprise bargaining disputes, Senate inquiries, peak body submissions, and incremental funding agreements. It is a slower, harder road — but one that has so far kept the pressure inside institutional channels rather than spilling into them.