Afət Ziyadqızı
Students at dozens of French high schools returning to class after a two-week break have resumed protests, blocking school entrances with rubbish bins and barricades.
“Operative Information Center-OMM” reports that demonstrations, which have continued since September over deteriorating education conditions and rising living costs, have become one of the biggest social crises of President Emmanuel Macron’s tenure.
Along with Paris and surrounding areas, students in major cities including Lille, Toulouse and Marseille are demanding more substitute teachers and repairs to ageing school buildings. Police intervened to dismantle the barricades, and some student protesters were detained.
The crisis is expected to deepen. University unions are preparing protests on campuses, while unions representing workers and civil servants have called a general strike for Thursday. Rail workers, teachers and private-sector employees are expected to join the planned action, backing students’ demands and protesting low wages and the rising cost of living.
Natanael Kombari, a representative of the “Renouveau Lycéen” student union, dismissed as insufficient the government’s proposals to limit the number of students in classrooms and review the university admissions system. He said students had no alternative to protesting.
France’s national education minister, Edouard Geffray, warned the protesters that upper-secondary students who have been unable to attend classes for weeks because of the barricades could be at risk of being barred from taking the Baccalauréat exams at the end of the year. Noting that hundreds of thousands of students had fallen behind with the curriculum, Geffray said the barricades were illegal and that restoring classes was the top priority.
