France to close up to 500 schools on Monday as student protests escalate

Up to 500 French high schools will be fully or partially closed on Monday, after weeks of student protests over classroom conditions escalated into violent clashes with riot police.

The country’s education minister, Édouard Geffray, announced on Sunday that lessons would be suspended at between 400 and 500 schools because safety conditions could not be guaranteed. He revealed that 24 schools had been burned or vandalised since the demonstrations began in mid-September, and 78 school staff members had been injured.

The closures will fall heavily on the Île-de-France region surrounding Paris. Valérie Pécresse, the regional president, told broadcaster Franceinfo that more than a third of its 468 high schools would be affected on Monday. The unrest, which started at a single Paris school on 17 September, has rapidly spread to major cities including Lyon, Marseille, Nantes, and Montpellier.

Why are French students protesting?

Teenage protesters at France's lycées are demanding urgent action over what they describe as a neglected public education system. Their grievances include chronic teacher shortages, overcrowded classrooms of up to 40 pupils, overlong school days, leaking ceilings, and cockroach infestations.

Many are also angry about the country's opaque university admissions platform and structural inequalities in disadvantaged areas, where pupils say they are forced to sit exams despite missing weeks of classes due to unfilled staff vacancies.

"I don't understand why the government deploys so much force against a case that is valid: our education, our future," a 16-year-old protester named Campion told AFP during an open-air meeting in Saint-Denis, north of Paris.

How violent have the clashes been?

While ministers have acknowledged that many of these complaints are legitimate, they have heavily condemned the accompanying "urban violence," blaming far-left agitators for infiltrating and hijacking the student movement.

The scale of the unrest has caught President Emmanuel Macron's administration by surprise. More than 5,000 people have been arrested since the protests began, with minors accounting for 85 percent of those detained. More than 600 police officers have also been injured in clashes. In one of the most serious incidents, police in the southern town of La Ciotat on Sunday detained a 16-year-old accused of dousing a 59-year-old teacher in petrol and striking him during a protest on Friday.

The government's response has also drawn fierce criticism. Amnesty International France accused security forces of using "disproportionate police violence," citing the heavy use of tear gas, batons, and rubber bullets against teenagers. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez defended the police, arguing they were protecting students who wanted to protest peacefully.

How is the French government responding?

To defuse the crisis, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu promised on Sunday to fast-track plans to fill teacher vacancies and announced a meeting with regional leaders on Tuesday to discuss rebuilding dilapidated campuses. He also warned that the government is speeding up a bill to force those responsible for property damage to foot the bill.

But these promises have done little to pacify the organisers, who have called for renewed nationwide demonstrations on Tuesday, accusing the state of failing to offer concrete measures.