France to close up to 500 schools as new student protests called | News of the demonstrations

The French Minister of Education cites security problems to explain the closures while the resumption of demonstrations is demanded by the organizers.

France plans to fully or partially close up to 500 schools on Monday amid a series of student protests that have become increasingly violent.

The Minister of National Education, Edouard Geffray, announced precautionary measures on Sunday as part of an attempt at a “partial and gradual return to classes”. However, after a weekend lull, student protesters announced plans to resume demonstrations — launched last month following complaints about class sizes, lack of teachers and other complaints — early this week.

Classes will be “totally or partially suspended” in certain “400 to 500” high schools, the security conditions “not being met”, specified the minister. He added that 24 schools had been “burned or ransacked” since the protests began.

Geffray said the closures were a safety measure. Protest organizers called for a resumption of large-scale demonstrations on Tuesday, citing a lack of “concrete measures” from President Emmanuel Macron’s government.

At least 170 students and 78 educational staff have been injured since the first student protests which broke out in the Paris region in mid-September, according to Geffray.

The Ministry of National Education said at least 400 of France’s 3,700 high schools were closed on Friday, while 560 faced protests or disruptions.

The number of schools affected Monday would be comparable to Friday, Geffray said.

Teachers and students first mobilized at a high school in the Paris suburbs on September 17 against a lack of teaching staff, excessive school hours and other grievances. Protests have since spread across the country, leading to class strikes, blockades and demonstrations.

According to the Minister of the Interior, more than 5,000 people were arrested last week; 85 percent of them are minors.

Critics have slammed “disproportionate” police violence in response to the protests. Rights group Amnesty International said the student protesters “must be listened to and not repressed”.

In an interview with French public radio, Geffray claimed that far-left activists “infiltrated the high school movement, hijacked it from the students themselves and engaged in extreme violence.”