French school protests resume on small scale as students return from break

High school students in France have resumed protests on a much smaller scale than in previous weeks as pupils returned from their two-week holiday break.

The Ministry of Education said 41 high schools were blockaded on Monday, about one percent of the country’s 3,700, according to the French public broadcaster Franceinfo.

Students attempted to blockade schools in Paris, Marseille and Rennes, the Reuters news agency reported. Hundreds of schools were blockaded in the weeks before the break.

“In terms of blockades, or attempted blockades, the phenomenon is very marginal. We’re talking about a handful of units, a few individual schools,” Education Minister Edouard Geffray told France Inter radio. He said protests were allowed, but preventing access to schools was illegal.

“The school year is now at risk for several hundred thousand pupils and we can’t allow that,” Geffray said, according to the state public news service Franceinfo.

The protests began in the Paris suburbs in September and spread across France. Last month, the focus of the anger broadened beyond education to the cost of living, drawing in trade unionists and activists. In a test for President Emmanuel Macron’s minority government, some protests turned into violent clashes with police and riots in several cities, with shops looted.

Students are demanding the renovation of ageing schools, more teachers, more university places and an end to a university admissions system they see as socially unfair.

Last week, the government announced a gradual replacement of the Parcoursup admissions platform by 2028, cancelled planned education job cuts, promised 500 additional posts and a cap of 28 pupils per class in the first year of high school, Franceinfo reported. It also pledged 4 billion euros ($4.47bn) to renovate schools and 15,000 new places in higher education.

Student representatives said the offers were not enough and vowed to continue protesting.

“Of course we’re calling for a blockade,” Pierre Sourzat, president of the student organisation Les Lyceens!, said on Sunday, according to France 24.

The Union Syndicale Lyceenne and Student Union have called for further blockades on Tuesday and Thursday, while the UNEF student union said Tuesday should be a “black day” for universities, with blockades across the country.