Classes in French lycées will be suspended amid mass protests
In France, from the morning of Wednesday, October 7, until the end of the week, regular classes in lycées will be suspended amid large-scale protests by high school students that continue across the country. This was announced by Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, speaking in the National Assembly.
The government decided to free up school time so that lycée administrations could hold meetings and discussions with students. According to Lecornu, Minister of Education Édouard Geffré ordered the schedule to be made "fully flexible" on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.
Instead of regular lessons, the management of educational institutions is offered to organize "internal democracy time" — to give high school students the opportunity to express their grievances and proposals and discuss them with school representatives.
Thus, the authorities are trying to establish dialogue with students after almost three weeks of protests that began in mid-September in the Paris region and then spread to other parts of France.
On Tuesday, October 6, the movement's third nationwide action took place. Demonstrations were organized in about 30 cities, including Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Toulouse, Rennes, and Strasbourg. Students, teachers, parents, and union representatives joined the high school students.
According to the French Ministry of Education, on Tuesday classes were fully or partially disrupted in 891 of roughly 3,700 lycées in the country. In the Île-de-France region alone, about 250 schools were affected.
The Ministry of the Interior reported about 86,000 demonstrators in the regions even before the start of the main march in Paris. The CGT union gave a significantly higher estimate — over 260,000 participants by midday, excluding the capital.
Students are demanding increased funding for education and solutions to accumulated problems in schools. Among the main grievances are the poor condition of some buildings, overcrowded classrooms, lack of substitutes for teachers, shortages of staff, high academic workload, and inequality in university admissions through the Parcoursup system.
The protests have repeatedly been accompanied by clashes with police. According to the government, several thousand people have been detained since late September, and there have been injuries among students and security personnel. Cases of serious injuries to minors during clashes caused particular resonance.
Lecornu stated in parliament that the authorities intend to listen to the students' demands, but at the same time emphasized that violence during protests is unacceptable. The government hopes to use the remaining days of the school week for direct dialogue within lycées.
