Hugh Schofield
Paris Correspondent

The students are complaining about lack of investment in education, but how does France compare to other developed countries in the money it spends on schools and universities?

According to the European Union, France’s spending on education relative to GDP is the fifth highest in the EU27, behind Sweden, Finland, Belgium and Denmark.

The absolute amount it spends per student in education is just below the EU average.

According to the OECD, France spends close to the OECD average per student – but with strong differences depending on the age group.

It spends below the average for primary and lower secondary education. But it spends 24% more than the average for upper secondary – i.e. lycées.

Image source, Getty Images

The French vocational training minister Sabrina Roubache says "we must listen to what young people are telling us", but adds they should understand they are "lucky".

"We are in France, we are a very great country," she tells BBC's Newshour. "We are lucky, we have high school free, university free, school free, the health [care is] free in France."

Roubache adds that France has a social model that is "maybe the best in the world".

She says she has been out to listen to young people today, dismissing concerns police are responding too harshly to protesters.

Roubache says there is a lot of "very high violence from young people" and cannot ask police officials to do nothing in response.

L'Union Etudiante, a student body helping organise the protests, says 450,000 protesters have taken to the streets throughout France today, which it says is "absolutely historic".

We reported earlier that an estimated 86,000 protesters were demonstrating in areas outside the Paris region, according to France's interior ministry, which has been providing separate figures.

Sadaf Maruf
Your Voice news editor

Kate Deegan, 20, has just started teaching at a secondary school and college in Arcachon - a seaside resort 40 minutes from Bordeaux.

The British student studying at Edinburgh University is living in France for her year abroad, and tells BBC Your Voice that a majority of students at the college are protesting.

"On Friday many of them were affected by tear gas outside the school, including a teacher. We were given face masks to wear as the tear gas came into the grounds of the school too," she says.

Deegan says she felt sorry for the students, some of whom were coughing and crying from the tear gas while studying in class.

She adds that her lessons have been cancelled at both institutions over safety risks today.

Image source, AFP via Getty Images

The demonstration in Rennes is now over - but not before protesters lit a large fire in Place Sainte-Anne, according to the prefect of Brittany and Ille-et-Vilaine.

Earlier, pictures from AFP showed riot police officers using a water cannon and tear gas in the Place de la Republique during clashes with protesters.

In a statement, the prefect said this was used to disperse a "hostile group" that had thrown "numerous projectiles at the police officers" and tried to break through a police cordon.

A later statement said the march had continued to the Place Sainte-Anne, where some protestors lit a "large garbage fire". Firefighters intervened under police protection, the prefect added.

Mark Lowen
Reporting from Marseille

All through the day, thousands of protesters have moved around this city, stopping momentarily to chant, only then to move on as the police have changed direction.

A few moments ago, we watched as a group of masked protesters grabbed bollards and bins and tried to barricade themselves off from police.

Riot officers fired tear gas, and the protesters dispersed.

I can feel it in my throat and eyes here. Tear gas lingers in the air for some time.

It’s a sign of how volatile this situation is - and how, for the moment, the government response hasn’t contained this.

We're now receiving pictures of tear gas being deployed amid protests in Paris, with footage captured by Reuters showing one demonstrator kicking a canister as people disperse in the chaos.

Image source, Reuters

Hugh Schofield
Paris Correspondent

Image source, Getty Images

A sudden excitement in the crowd at the Place de la République – then the chant goes up: "Mélenchon Président!"

It’s the veteran head of the France Unbowed (LFI) party Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

He is lionised by this young left-wing audience, and as he moves about people press round for a glimpse.

This is the man accused by the government of fomenting trouble for electoral ends.

Right now he is either second or third-placed in the presidential race, depending on the polls.

He is an outspoken champion of the students’ demands, which is why they love him.

"We're here to fight for our rights," says Alissa, a student in Marseille.

She tells the BBC News Channel that they are protesting alongside teachers from their school: "We just want better conditions. They never listen to us... and if we don't fight, nobody is going to fight for us."

"Most of us aren't violent," she says, adding that "police they don't even let us [protesters] walk" in the street, which "creates a lot of tension in the country, in the city".

Her friend Sacha adds that there are leaks in school ceilings and in "general the condition in which we work is very poor, so we can't really work a lot of time".

"We will keep doing this until good measures are taken," he says.

Image source, Reuters

French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu says hundreds of police officers and students have been injured during the recent protests across France.

Speaking in the French parliament this afternoon, Lecornu says 215 students have been hurt since the protests began, as have 85 school workers and 715 gendarmes and police officers.

He says it is the highest figure to affect workers in the education system in decades, condemning the "trivialisation" of violence that is "unacceptable".

"Burning down a high school does not improve the state of high school buildings. Lynching a teacher does not help replace teachers," he says, adding it is a "lie" to suggest the government had ordered "police repression" against demonstrators.

Footage from PSG celebrations falsely linked to school protestspublished at 14:36 BST

14:36 BST

By Lucy Gilder and Sarah Jalali

BBC Verify has found several examples of viral videos on X claiming to show the recent protests which are actually from months, or even years, before the current unrest.

A clip showing crowds dancing and cheering by a fire in front of the Eiffel Tower has been shared repeatedly, including in one post captioned “France has fallen” which has been viewed six million times, external.

But reverse image searches of the footage shows it was first shared on 31 May. It actually shows celebrations by Paris Saint-Germain fans after winning the Champions League final.

Another video shows a man and woman sat outside a bar while a fire burns in the middle of the street. The accompanying post - viewed 2.7 million times , external- says "this video from France is probably the most terrifying...". But the footage actually depicts protests in Bordeaux in March 2023.

One post viewed nearly 500,000 times reads, external "the black uprising continues in France" and includes a video showing what appears to be a confrontation between police and protesters at a train station in Paris.

But simply clicking a link attached to the video leads you to a post with the same footage dated to December 2017.

Pierre-Antoine Denis
Reporting from Marseille

Image source, Reuters

As the first peaceful protest drew to a close around midday, we heard rumours within the heart of the protest that it would turn to "mode sauvage" ("wild mode", or "savage mode").

In essence, the protests are now unregulated, and hordes of people are just wandering around Marseille while police try to contain the movements.

We now hear and see different groups in different parts of town.

So far it's all been peaceful here in Marseille, but the city is heavily guarded with police around different potential flash points.

Image source, Reuters

These are some of the latest pictures coming to us from the French capital, where authorities are expecting between 20,000 to 40,000 people to protest.

Image source, AFP via Getty Images

Image source, EPA/Shutterstock

Image source, Reuters

The union for secondary school students, which is one of the major organisers of the protest, says 2,000 high schools have shut across the country.

The Union Syndicale Lycéenne (USL) also says it has "mobilised" all universities across the country.

The union's figures on school closures differ from those given by the education ministry - which earlier said that 891 schools have had classes suspended, either totally or partially.

Mark Lowen
Reporting from Marseille

Joanna is a university student, but went to high school in a Parisian suburb, where the student protests began.

Asked why she is taking part in demonstrations today, she tells me: "We are protesting for better conditions of learning for our students, high schoolers."

Joanna says there is a lack of teachers and lack of replacements for teachers who are sick, and therefore "we don't have enough teachers to learn".

On the conditions inside her high school, she recalls one incident where a roof fell on some students and says there were also "a lot of floods" and rats, while some students didn't eat because meals were too expensive.

Joanna describes the police response to protesters as "really violent and really aggressive", adding it is "really escalating".

"Police get violent and so people respond with violence."

She says high school pupils have been throwing objects on fire, but claims "if they don't do that they are not heard" and "students don't injure people they injure things".

Nick Beake
Reporting from Lille

In Lille, thousands of people - many of them teenagers - have arrived at Place de la République, which is supposed to be the end point of this protest march.

A brass band has just started up and is pumping music out across the street. There are dozens of police officers in riot gear at the corners of the square, some of them standing in front of the government building of the Lille Préfecture.

"Everyone hates the police" is the chant that one large group of children are joining in.

Along the route, some protesters told us how they feared officers would be violent towards them today.

When I later pointed out lots of teachers and emergency service workers have also been injured over the past week or so, the response is that only a tiny minority of those protesting have been violent.

There is chanting and clapping. A red haze of smoke has drifted across one of the entry points from which hundreds more students continue to arrive.

Some young people are dressed in black with their faces covered. It’s noisy and animated but there are no obvious signs there will be disorder.

Image source, AFP via Getty Images

The wave of student protests that has swept France continues. People are rallying for better conditions in schools - pointing to teacher shortages, overcrowding, and dilapidated buildings.

With France's largest union turning out today, the movement shows no sign of abating - here's what is happening.

• Today's demonstrations have been dubbed "Act Three" by the school movement, with parents, university students, and the Confédération Générale du Travail (CGT) - France's largest union - taking part
• Hundreds of schools have been fully or partially closed - although the figures being given vary. France's education ministry says almost 900 schools have suspended classes, while the national students' union reports that 2,000 secondary schools are closed
• While many are protesting peacefully, there has been disorder - including in Lyon, where barricades have been set on fire, and in Strasbourg, where there were clashes with police
• Human rights organisations have expressed "serious concern" about the "disproportionate police response" to the protesters

• "I am very scared for the future," one Parisian student tells the BBC. Another says that "we still feel like we are not being heard"

Madeleine Lake
Live reporter

Image source, Phoebe Nilor

In the Paris suburbs of Noisy-le-Grand, Phoebe Nilor has been protesting. She says life in school is "difficult" because of overcrowding and a lack of desks.

The 17-year-old has been livestreaming the protests on TikTok, and tells me she has been peacefully demonstrating.

"We peacefully demonstrated for our rights and to demand better working conditions, because we are in classes of 35 students, which is completely overcrowded. We have been fighting for so many things, and to this day, we still feel like we are not being heard."

She says the level of police violence during protests has been "really upsetting" and says she feels "disgusted" that the government is using "so much force" against young people.

While many demonstrations are said to be proceeding peacefully, the government says 215 students and 715 police officers have been injured since they started.

Hugh Schofield
Paris Correspondent

Image source, AFP via Getty Images

From early this morning, 100 or more students from the Lycée Sophie-Germain in central Paris blockaded their building with wheelie bins and crowd-control barriers, and in a party atmosphere chanted slogans and songs targeting the government, the far-right and the police.

Afterwards they moved off to the Place de la République where a protest march is now getting under way - the students joined by delegations from trade-unions and left-wing political parties.

There is of course a big contingent of police stationed all around, ready to intervene in the event of vandalism or fire-raising.

On all sides there’s hope that this more structured form of protest – a march down an authorised route – will prove more easy to control than ad hoc outbreaks outside schools.

France's interior ministry estimates about 86,000 protesters have taken to the streets across France on Tuesday, not including the Paris region, Reuters reports.

The Paris protest is due to start now - at 14:00 local time (13:00 BST), according to organisers, with authorities expecting between 20,000 to 40,000 people to attend.