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Blockades by students at high schools and universities are spreading across several French cities as trade unions call for a general strike and students say the government’s commitments on education are insufficient.
Operative Information Center-OMM reports that students who blocked the entrance to Panthéon-Assas University in Paris with rubbish bins and barricades were removed from the area after police intervened.
Similar actions are continuing at numerous educational institutions in the capital, including the Victor Hugo, Sophie Germain, Claude Monet, Hélène Boucher and Simone Weil high schools. Police also intervened against demonstrators seeking to form a human chain outside Camille Jullian High School in Bordeaux. Alongside Paris and Bordeaux, Rennes and Lille are among the main centres of the protests.
High school students in France have been staging protests since September 17, calling for improved educational conditions, increased funding for schools and more teachers. Protests that had eased during talks with the government intensified again after students deemed the commitments made insufficient. Around 8,000 people have been detained during the protests, which have continued for a month and a half and have also drawn in university students and trade unions.
