'Not a privilege': Liege students march as fees rise and classrooms crowd

LIEGE: Hundreds of students filled the streets of Liege on Wednesday, carrying the same complaint in two languages: education is becoming a price, not a right. Placards read that pupils had chosen education, not a hunger games, as police checked bags and blocked roads nearby.

Local media, citing the Belga news agency, reported 107 arrests in recent days linked to offences including property damage and arson. Local authorities could not immediately confirm that total. What is confirmed is the policy behind the anger. In Belgium's French-speaking Community, tuition for most students has risen to 1,194 euros from 835 euros, and a cost-cutting plan seeks 500 million euros in savings by 2029 against an education budget of 10.65 billion euros in 2025. Teachers' weekly hours have also risen from 20 to 22, a change pupils say leaves less time for the school life that happens outside a lesson.

The movement did not begin on Wednesday. Students say it started earlier this year, paused nothing, and was reignited by the high-school protests in neighbouring France over crowded classrooms, teacher shortages and deteriorating buildings. Two 19-year-olds told reporters the connection is direct: they support each other because they face much the same issues, and France showed that nothing changes without protest.

Monday's escalation explains the mayor's careful tone as much as the students' slogans. Schools were blocked, shops in the centre closed as a precaution, fires were set, and police used tear gas and water cannon. Early counts spoke of dozens of arrests and officers with minor injuries; later reports raised the arrest figures. Mayor Willy Demeyer said he hoped calm would return and that dialogue could still be established.

Dialogue is the word both sides now use, with different meanings. For the city, it means grievances heard peacefully. For the students, it means the fee increase and the savings plan put back on the table. The Justice notes the pattern because Tamil Nadu knows it well: when classrooms are crowded and materials are hard to reach, pupils read a budget as a decision about who is meant to succeed. Liege has not yet decided whether its students are an expense to be cut or a public to be answered.