Students continue to protest in France as hundreds of schools close

What the report says

Student protests continued across France on Monday, prompting hundreds of high schools to close fully or partly as unrest over teacher shortages and deteriorating school conditions spread beyond the original demonstrations. Al Jazeera, citing French officials and local reporting, said the protests began at a school in a Paris suburb at the end of September and have since widened nationwide.

Education Minister Edouard Geffray said on Sunday that roughly 400 to 500 of the country’s 3,700 schools were likely to be affected on Monday. He also said 24 schools had been burned or ransacked and that 78 teachers had been injured since the protests began. Government spokesperson Maud Bregeon said the priority was to restore order.

Al Jazeera reported scenes of barricades, clashes with police and fire at or near schools in several cities, including Paris, Lille and Toulouse. A school leader in Paris described a rapid and violent attack on a vocational school in the capital, which led to evacuations and suspended classes. The reporting also noted arrests, injuries and property damage in recent days.

The protests matter because students say they are demanding better staffing and fairer access to education, including for students in poorer areas and overseas territories. Student unions have called for another national day of demonstrations on Tuesday. As a general background point, French school protests have at times become a wider flashpoint over public services, but the current unrest is centered on education-specific complaints.