France student protests demand more teachers and investment in education

There's a pretty festive atmosphere at the end of this demonstration. You can see there a band of people playing musical instruments. Look, thousands of people have turned out in Paris in support of these high school protests. Now what the young people have been asking for is they are demanding that the government improve their education system. And these protests began nearly a month ago in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis. We've been speaking to some students who took part in this protest about some of the conditions in their high school. Our schedules are too full. Teachers are not there. There are too many problems and the government doesn't see it. We're forgotten by the state. No one helps us with internships. I'm for peace, liberty, equality and fraternity, but it's not respected. Well, this is a protest movement that's really been fueled by social media. And a bit earlier, the Swedish activist Greta Thunberg joined some students at a high school in the suburbs. And this is what she had to say. Young people are not being included in the conversation. Our future is being robbed away from us. And as we've seen here, schools are not getting investments that they need, which, I mean, it just gives a signal to young people that you are not prioritized in our society. We can see a sign here. It says education is a right. it is not a privilege we've seen that message a lot here and a lot of signs criticizing the police response during some of these high school protests the police response is disproportionate they attack students who are only asking for more resources for their education the demonstration was mainly peaceful but there were a few clashes with police and some protesters we're going to have to be careful here to make sure that we have no stones the government has said that it hears the students demands it's announced 3 000 substitute teachers as a solution but for these students they say that is enough everyone is aware in France that France has a debt problem that there's not a lot of money to go around but nevertheless these protesters say that they intend to continue until their demands are met. Natasha Butler, Al Jazeera, Paris.