French high school students have been protesting for more than two weeks over conditions in schools, including overcrowded classrooms and staff shortages. The unrest began on September 21, 2026, when pupils blockaded a school in the Paris suburb of Creteil, and within a week, the protests had spread across the country, resulting in clashes between students and police. On September 29, the demonstrations coincided with a nationwide public sector strike, where teachers joined other state workers against a proposed pay freeze. More than 6,100 people have been arrested during these protests.
With the government facing pressure to reduce spending as its debt rises, Al Jazeera examines France's investment in education compared to other European countries and its spending on healthcare and defense. According to Eurostat, France's public spending on education is 5.1 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP), excluding private spending such as school fees.
The French Ministry of National Education reports a broader measure, known as domestic expenditure on education, which includes all funding sources for education. In 2025, France spent 199.2 billion euros ($223 billion) on education, equivalent to 6.7 percent of its GDP, which is 2.4 billion euros more than in 2024.
Education spending has more than doubled since 1980, adjusted for inflation, but its share of GDP is lower today than in the mid-1990s. Secondary education accounted for the largest share of spending at 73.7 billion euros (37 percent), followed by primary education at 60 billion euros (30 percent), higher education at 45.6 billion euros (23 percent), and adult and continuing education at 19.7 billion euros (10 percent).
Among European countries, Sweden spends the largest share of its GDP on education at 7.3 percent in 2024, followed by Iceland (7 percent) and Belgium, Estonia, and Finland (6.3 percent each). The lowest spenders include Ireland (2.7 percent), Greece (3.9 percent), Romania and Italy (4 percent each), and the United Kingdom and Spain (4.1 percent each).
France ranks 13th in education spending, alongside the Netherlands and Slovakia, and above the EU average of 4.8 percent. However, high spending has not prevented a growing issue of teacher shortages across the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. In the 2024-2025 school year, 9 percent of primary and secondary teachers across the OECD were not fully qualified, with France showing 11 percent of secondary teachers lacking full qualifications.
Students have reported large class sizes and unfilled teacher positions, as well as issues with school facilities, including dilapidated buildings and insufficient resources. Teachers also feel undervalued, with only 4 percent stating their profession is respected in society, the lowest among surveyed countries and significantly below the OECD average of 22 percent.
Historical data from UNESCO indicates that France's education spending decreased from 5.5 percent of GDP in 2017 to 5.3 percent in 2022, remaining the ninth-highest among 29 European countries. The protests are occurring alongside public sector strikes related to the government's proposed 2027 budget, which aims to save 54 billion euros ($61.3 billion) and includes a plan to freeze state employees' salaries, expected to save about 2 billion euros ($2.27 billion).
In general, most European governments allocate more to education than to defense, while healthcare receives the largest share of national income. In 2022, France spent 11.9 percent of its GDP on healthcare, one of the highest in Europe.