France to shut up to 500 schools Monday amid student protest unrest

Up to 500 schools across France will be totally or partly closed on Monday because of a wave of student protests that has shaken the country, the education minister has said, Channels TV reports.

Lessons will be “totally or partly suspended” in some “400-500” high schools, as security conditions “have not been fulfilled,” Education Minister Edouard Geffray said on Sunday, adding that 24 schools had been “burnt or ransacked” since the movement began.

He described the closures as chiefly a security precaution ahead of large-scale protests planned for Tuesday, noting the number of affected schools would be comparable to Friday’s figure, though he vowed a “partial, progressive return to lessons.

“The protests, which began at a Paris school on September 17, grew into nationwide demonstrations over high teacher absences, overlong school days and dilapidated facilities, marked in places by violent clashes between teenagers and security forces using tear gas and batons.

Geffray claimed far-left activists had “infiltrated” the movement and “engaged in extreme violence,” saying 78 education staff members had been wounded, including a teacher doused with gasoline and struck in La Ciotat, over which a 16-year-old has been detained.

Over 5,000 people, 85 per cent of them minors, have been arrested since the movement started, with critics accusing police of heavy-handed tactics.

Amnesty International’s France branch condemned “disproportionate police violence,” urging authorities to let students protest without fear of tear gas or arbitrary detention.

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez, however, insisted security forces were not “cracking down on young people” but rather “protecting” students seeking to peacefully voice their demands, as organisers pressed ahead with plans for further protests on Tuesday.