The blockades of French high schools will be renewed from Monday, when students return from a two-week vacation. Some schools will be blocked on the first day, and wider actions are expected from Tuesday.
This was stated by Pierre Surza, head of the student organization “Lycéens!“, to RMC radio. “From Tuesday it will be more extensive, but we know that some schools will be blocked tomorrow,“ he said. Surza added: “We support all our comrades who are blocking their schools from tomorrow.“
Students reject government proposals
On Saturday, protests were held in France for the third consecutive weekend. Hundreds of thousands of people, including schoolchildren and university students, took part in them. The movement began with demonstrations against deteriorating educational conditions and inequality, and later expanded to include dissatisfaction with rising prices.
The government announced a package of measures to respond to the protesters' demands. Among the proposals are replacing the university admissions platform and providing loans for the renovation of school buildings. However, student organizations said the measures were not enough.
Sabrine Harbach, a spokeswoman for the Union Etudiante, announced that blockades of universities and high schools were planned for Tuesday and Thursday. Thus, the protests could continue after the start of classes.
The admissions and class size dispute
President Emmanuel Macron called for classes to start peacefully and said that “young people have been heard“. Surza rejected this assessment. “The president did not hear us“, he said, describing the proposals as “a smokescreen“.
According to the head of “Lycéens!“, the planned replacement of the application system in higher education does not solve the main problem of the shortage of places. The platform has been criticized for years for its lack of transparency in admissions.
Surza also described the plan to reduce the number of students in classes as insufficient, since it will only apply to the tenth grade. "We wanted this to apply to all classes," he said.
The government is under pressure to cut spending due to economic difficulties, the risk of recession and the need to reduce public debt. This limits its ability to respond to the protesters' demands with new financial commitments.
Sources: france24.com, arabnews.com