French school blockades to restart today
The head of a student group said a campaign of high school blockades would restart from today (Monday), adding the government’s proposals did not go far enough. On Saturday, hundreds of thousands of people, including high school and university students, took to the streets across France for a third consecutive weekend of protests. Some high […]
High school students in France are set to resume blockading schools starting from Monday, amid ongoing protests over deteriorating learning conditions and inequality. Pierre Sourzat, head of the "Lyceens!" student group, stated that the government's recent proposals did not adequately address their demands. The protests began on Saturday, with hundreds of thousands of people, including students from both high schools and universities, taking to the streets for a third consecutive weekend of demonstrations.
Some schools will be blockaded as early as Monday, when students return from a two-week holiday. Sourzat criticized the government's measures, including replacing the university admissions platform and offering loans for school renovations, as insufficient. President Emmanuel Macron called for classes to resume in a peaceful manner, acknowledging that "young people have been heard," but Sourzat dismissed this as "smoke and mirrors."
The government's proposed overhaul of the university admissions platform, long criticized for its lack of transparency, did not address the shortage of places in higher education. Additionally, the plan to reduce class sizes would only apply to 10th-grade classes, falling short of the students' requests for all year groups. As France's second-largest economy faces the prospect of recession and mounting debt, the government's ability to appease student protesters through additional spending is limited.
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