We are witnessing violent protests in France and Albania on our TV screens. French students are up in arms about underfunded schools in the state system. Albanian protesters are trying to oust their Prime Minister over corruption scandals.
If you accept that the state has a difficult job to prioritise the most deserving government departments, how could they have got things so wrong that thousands of students are on French streets facing a heavy police presence and prepared for confrontation?
Young people in the poorer districts of big cities must feel like second-class citizens if the stories of crumbling school buildings and a shortage of teachers are to be believed. Education can be the lifeline for poorer students to rise above their humble origins. If that hope has been extinguished, it is not surprising that mass protests have taken place.
The economic cost of failure to provide adequate schooling in modern-day France has to be examined by those who hold the purse strings.
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