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

• French high school protests resumed on 2 November after a break, but only a few schools in Paris, Marseille and Rennes saw blockade attempts.
• The protests began in the Paris suburbs in September and spread nationwide, then turned violent in October with clashes, riots and shop looting.
• Students want better schools, more teachers, more university places and fairer admissions; Minister Edouard Geffray offered €4 billion and 15,000 new places, but students said it was not enough.

PARIS – French high school student protests resumed on Nov 2 on a much smaller scale than in past weeks as they returned from a two-week break, with youngsters trying to blockade a few high schools in Paris, Marseille and Rennes, French media reported.

Hundreds of more than 3,000 high schools in France were blockaded in the weeks prior to the break. The protests, which began in the Paris suburbs in September, have spread across the country and broadened beyond education to focus on the cost of living, drawing in trade unionists and activists and sometimes turning violent.

A wave of so-called “Gen Z” protests has swept across European countries, including Germany, Italy, Belgium and Albania, driven by grievances including the cost of living, the poor state of schools and perceived corruption.

In October, French protests degenerated into violent clashes with the police and outright riots in several cities, with shops looted, in a test for President Emmanuel Macron’s minority government.

“In terms of blockades – or rather, attempted blockades – the phenomenon is very marginal. We’re talking about just a handful of units, a few individual schools,” Education Minister Edouard Geffray told radio station France Inter on the morning of Nov 2.

He said protests are allowed but preventing access to schools is illegal.

Police officers were present, TV footage showed, though not in full anti-riot gear.

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

Geffray offered last week to cap class sizes at 28, dedicate €4 billion (S$5.73 billion) to renovating schools, create 15,000 new places for students in higher education and a new admission system by 2028. High school student representatives said the offers were not enough and they would keep protesting. REUTERS