Paris Protests - Should UK follow suit?

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I am following the coverage of the Paris education protests with interest. A lot of the triggers are failures the UK education system are making too (or at least GB, Im not so sure on N.Ire).

AIBU to think if the Paris Protests are successful, the UK should follow suit?

Our children deserve so much better!

I don’t think it’s a genius idea, right now, to encourage any opportunities for massed gatherings in major cities, for a variety of equally depressing reasons.

Riot is not a synonym for protest.

HTH.

My kid's state school does an amazing job! They are so scrappy. They had an overgrown corner last year and have converted into a forest school programme every other week and even provide spare waterproof trousers for kids who need them. They have a decent library- we donate books and other parents do too. They take simple field trips- walk up the high street and use it to make maps. I find they are very generous with the activities for the children- we would have paid for the after school clubs but they are free. They never seem to ask for us to provide any supplies. The staff seem kind and happy. It's not perfect but we are glad he's there and it's so close. I think the other ones in the area are decent too. (Inner city, south).

Sorry, can't see what we'd protest?

What, in your opinion, is happening in France? Protests or riots?

Yes

The money is there. Not in the hands of the proletariat/ordinary people mind you. We’re the 6th largest economy in the uk. Dont let the capitalist propoganda fool you.

Of course the money is there. We have more billionaires with more wealth than ever before. Elon Musk over in America can buy entire countries ffs. We have followed a similar trajectory and while smaller and less wealthy in the whole, show the same phenomenon. It was caused by privatization and corruption (very closely linked phenomena) deliberately stripping the public purse of assets that were transferred to the off shore accounts of fewer individuals.

Don't be ridiculous

It's the whole of France, not just Paris. Plus the vast majority of children are protesting peacefully. There are known agitators causing much of the violence and rioting.
My children are in school in France and there are lots of issues with the state sector. Mainly that teachers are not replaced when they are off sick. But also the length of the school day and state of the buildings - during the heatwave this year the school had to shut in the afternoons, as it was unsafe inside. We live in the South so heat waves are a regular occurance. Class sizes in lycee are vast and the curriculum is very traditional so lots of homework on top of a very long school day and the threat of redoublement if they fail the year. It's a very tough system and the recent PISA scores showed France has fallen far behind in literacy and maths.
Culturally the French do protest and strike to make their voices heard. It's culturally acceptable here in a way it's not in the UK - at least from the look of this thread anyway.

Vast majority are protesting.

The news has been focusing on the pockets of troubles because its more newsworthy but the vast majority is protesting.

The riots are nothing to do with school under funding but leftist anti establishment anarchy caused by years of indoctrination!

yabvu to suggest it’s ok to riot and cause criminal damage!

Again....riot is not a synonym for protest.

They are rioting and however many they are I don’t want this happening here.

The country spent 14 years voting for Tory Austerity, Brexit and reducing immigration. The state of the schools ( and all public services) are the results of those votes and the stalled economy and rapidly aging population they created.
Rioting because we got what we voted for would be the height of stupidity.

How on Earth did they create an ageing population?

Getting older is just that, people are getting older despite Covid, actually. Would you have preferred it for the older people to have died from in?

And Brexit might be blamed for lots of things bur it didn’t make anyone age prematurely.

Immigration has been off the charts. You might want to keep importing young people, but they come with dependents attached and they get older, too.

Honestly, some posts might benefit from a bit of common sense.

Absolutely not. They’re behaving like fucking animals

But you could spend money better and cut your debt and interest payments. I say well done the French people.

It’s spread to Belgium too now. I think the French are right to protest (the small minority causing huge damage ruin it for everyone). The lack of teachers, lack of funding in schools in France and Belgium is no joke at all. The education system is broken. However I do think the protests and strikes (we had a general one today here in Belgium) will make zero difference as the governments will not back down and find more money! My own adult children are utterly disillusioned

Not when you have to spend on policing the protests and repairing the damage these idiots are causing though.

Any protests here would end the same way as in France - property damage, aggressive behaviour. It doesn’t matter whether it’s the protestors or some troublemakers who are doing it.

Dont be so ridiculous.

That’s quite an appropriate username for this subjext!

People most definitely should be out in the streets demanding more money for schools. We have come to just accept that class sizes are large, that unqualified teachers take classes, that SEND kids just be given a wobble cushion and they’ll be fine, that roofs leak, paint peels, damp spreads and resources are stretched. But there is no way any protest should be violent or riotous. Calm, peaceful, dignified protest.

When was the last calm dignified protest you saw in France? Or anywhere really?

Look at the immigration ‘protests’ in this country - they end up becoming riots,

It would be the same with protesting about education. It’s like a crowd mentality takes over and even those who don’t intend to riot get caught up in it end up participating in the violence and/or getting injured in it.

The idea of people marching quietly to prove a point is lovely and all but rarely happens.

Do we need more money invested in young people & children? yes
Should we riot? no
Having said that the population is remarkably apathetic over the cuts to the young over the last two decades.