Students in France clash with riot police amid weekslong education protests

Take a look at that. Those are protesters in western France earlier today facing off against police before being dispersed by tear gas. And in Paris, high school students are continuing to blockade streets as the nationwide education protests stretch into a fourth week. Now teachers, you can see there, also formed a human chain to shield students from police. The protests have snowballed into a broader movement with some university students now joining in. They say the French government is ignoring their concerns about crowded and run-down classrooms and the need for more teachers. Journalist Ross Cullen is at a demonstration in Paris with more. Yeah, that's right, Arthur. We are now into the fourth week of this mobilization by students and by teachers. Many different education sector unions are on strike this Tuesday and thousands of people are demonstrating across the country. The police have had to use tear gas. There have been some violent clashes in the western city of Nantes. There have been marches in Marseille, in Lyon, in all the major cities. Here in Paris as well, you might be able to see there's a police blockade. The protest is just behind that police van barricade as well. We've seen these barricades set up by students. They're often using rubbish bins, trash cans with flags and banners and loudspeakers week after week in front of their high schools, calling for a range of different complaints a range of different things that are motivating these protests for the teachers it's better pay and conditions for the students it's better conditions getting too hot in the classrooms during heat waves dilapidated infrastructure also they are calling for a change to the reduction in the number of classes that we've seen and more teachers as well we did say i saw one placard earlier today saying i'm too young to vote but i'm old enough to be tear gassed was one of the placards another one said we need more teachers and fewer riot police now it's not just france where the focus is we're also seeing a bit of international action as well with the swedish activist greta thunberg here attending one of the school barricades this morning Arthur and then this afternoon this major protest in paris let's listen in now to a little bit more of what miss thunberg had to say people are stepping up and revolting and rebelling against the system we know it's not working in our favor which we can also see from the extremely violent response from the establishment where politicians are responding in a way that just showed that they're completely out of touch with reality and what people are actually living and going through and when police are protecting this extremely violent status quo at the expense of these children going out demanding the bare minimum just shows everything who they are really protecting. So Greta Thunberg they're addressing students and addressing the media taking part in those protests but as we can see now it does show with teachers ready to continue to go on strike and students ready to continue protesting the pressure on the government is continuing and these demonstrations are also showing no signs of slowing down.