The French Republic’s forgotten promise of equality

French youth learn in school about the French Revolution’s values but they do not see them reflected in their own reality. Liberté, égalité, fraternité (liberty, equality, fraternity). Every French child learns the motto long before learning what it means to live up to it.

It is a powerful promise. So is France’s habit of breaking it. France has spent more than two centuries struggling to fulfil the French Republic’s founding principles of equality, liberty and fraternity.

All citizens are supposed to be equal before the law, and public institutions are meant to serve the common good, regardless of origin or social background. So, when students at under-resourced schools in Parisian suburbs or rural areas protest against missing teachers, deteriorating conditions in school buildings and years of neglect, their grievances extend beyond the classroom. They are challenging a system that promises equal opportunity while leaving many young people to pursue it with fewer resources than others.