France will partially or fully close between 400 and 500 high schools on Monday after days of violent clashes between riot police and student demonstrators, Education Minister Édouard Geffray announced Sunday.
Lessons will be “totally or partly suspended” at the affected schools because security conditions “have not been fulfilled,” Geffray said. He added that 24 schools have been “burned or ransacked” since the protests began last week.
Thousands of students have been demonstrating over declining education standards, with the movement spreading from the capital to cities including Montpellier, Nantes, and Marseille. High school pupils have cited a lack of teachers, overcrowded classrooms, and run-down buildings as their core grievances.
On Friday, Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin said 735 of France’s 3,700 schools had been affected “one way or another” by violent protests. Geffray warned that Monday’s figure could be comparable, though he promised a “partial, progressive return to lessons.”
The education minister alleged that “activists — particularly from the far-left — have infiltrated the high school student movement, hijacked it from the students themselves, and engaged in extreme violence.”
“Clearly, this poses a risk to both our staff and our students,” Geffray said, adding that 78 education staff members had been wounded — “something we have never seen before.”
According to Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez, 1,747 people were arrested on Friday alone. The AFP news agency reports that over 5,000 people have been arrested since the movement began, with around 85% of them minors.
Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said Sunday that his government is taking further steps to “address the difficulties faced by high school students and educational staff.” Measures include ensuring classes continue, improving facilities, better organizing school days, and making the French university admissions platform more transparent.
Lecornu also said the government is accelerating review of its “vandal-pays” bill, which would ensure that people responsible for damage bear the cost of their actions.
Organizers have called for protests to continue on Tuesday, accusing the government of a lack of “concrete measures,” according to AFP. The standoff shows no sign of easing, with the government caught between addressing genuine grievances over school conditions and restoring order after weeks of escalating unrest.
