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France Protests: Up to 500 Schools Closed Due to Security Concerns
Education Minister Édouard Geffray said security conditions were not met as protests spread over overcrowding, teacher shortages and crumbling buildings.
On Monday, Education Minister Edouard Geffray announced that 400 to 500 French high schools will be "totally or partly suspended" as a security precaution following weeks of student protests over school conditions.
Protesting students cite overcrowded classrooms, dilapidated buildings, and teacher shortages as systemic failures that have rendered studying conditions untenable across France's education system.
Clashes between protesters and security forces have resulted in more than 5,000 arrests, with 85% of those detained being minors, while 78 education staff members suffered injuries during the unrest.
Geffray alleged far-left activists "hijacked" the movement and engaged in extreme violence, though Amnesty International slammed "disproportionate police violence," highlighting conflicting accounts of responsibility.
Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu scheduled a Tuesday meeting with regional presidents to discuss overhauling school buildings, vowing not to "yield an inch to violence" while addressing student grievances.
In more than 400 schools in France there are protests again. Blockages and violence lead to school failure and high material damage. The Prime Minister wants to respond to the concerns of young people.
Demonstrations are taking place at more than four hundred French educational institutions on Monday, the French Ministry of Education reports. Additionally, four to five hundred locations are fully or partially closed due to the unrest.
1 hour ago·Apeldoorn, Netherlands (Kingdom of the)
Hundreds of French high schools remain closed for the second week in a row. Since the demonstrations began, 78 employees of the education system have been injured.