France to close or partly shut up to 500 schools amid protests

Up to 500 French high schools will be fully or partly closed on Monday because of security concerns linked to a nationwide student protest movement, Education Minister Edouard Geffray said. Geffray said lessons would be suspended at between 400 and 500 schools, a figure he described as comparable to that recorded on Friday. He said authorities would seek a gradual return to teaching as conditions allowed.

The minister said 24 schools had been burned or ransacked since the protests began. He described the planned closures as a security precaution ahead of larger demonstrations called for Tuesday. The movement began at a Paris school on September 17 before spreading across the country.

Students have complained about teacher absences, lengthy school days and deteriorating facilities, among other grievances. Geffray alleged that far-left activists had entered the movement and encouraged extreme violence. He said 78 education workers had been injured and claimed that some had been deliberately targeted because they worked for the national education system.

More than 5,000 people, 85 per cent of them minors, have been arrested since the protests began. Critics, including Amnesty France, have accused police of using disproportionate force, including tear gas and batons, against demonstrators. A 16-year-old was detained on Sunday over an attack on a 59-year-old teacher in La Ciotat.

The teacher was reportedly doused with gasoline and struck during a protest on Friday. Two Bulgarian teenagers, aged 15 and 17, were also arrested and investigated over an alleged assault on a police officer in Belfort. Interior Minister Laurent Nunez rejected claims that security forces were suppressing young people, saying officers were protecting students who wanted to express their demands peacefully.

Protest organisers say demonstrations will continue because the government has not offered concrete measures.