French Schools on Pause Amid Escalating Protests
Up to five hundred high‑school institutions will be partially or totally closed on Monday as the French government grapples with clashes between students and riot police. Deputy Education Minister Édouard Geffray warned that security conditions have not been met, citing 24 schools that were burned or ransacked since the protests began.
The demonstration movement, which launched in Paris last week, has since spread to Montpellier, Nantes and Marseille. High‑school pupils are voicing complaints over a lack of teachers, overcrowded classrooms and deteriorating school facilities. Over 5,000 people, about 85% of whom are minors, have been arrested to date, with 1,747 detained on Friday alone.
Gevray argued that far‑left activists had infiltrated the student movement, turning it into an arena for extreme violence. He highlighted that 78 teachers and staff members were wounded, describing the violence as unprecedented. In response, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu pledged “further steps” to address students’ needs and announced an acceleration of the review of the new “vandal‑pays” bill.
The government also plans to safeguard classroom continuity, improve infrastructure, reorganise school schedules and make the university admissions platform more transparent. Organisers of the protests demand that the demonstrations continue on Tuesday, insisting that the government’s promises have yet to materialise into concrete reforms.
