‘Not a problem of short-term solutions’: French students demand structural change, better conditions

Delano D'Souza is pleased to welcome Gökçe Tuncel, Sociologist and post-doctoral researcher associated with the Université Paris-Est Créteil (UPEC) and the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS) in Paris. What began as a protest over missing teachers and inadequate resources at a high school in Créteil has rapidly evolved into a wider mobilization challenging structural inequalities within France’s public education system. “This is not a problem of short-term solutions. This is a structural problem that they are denouncing, and their demands are structural changes,” explains Tuncel. The movement's rapid expansion reflects more than the organizational power of social media. It reveals a growing political consciousness among young people confronting deteriorating educational infrastructure, unequal access to resources, and an increasingly uncertain future.