France, 891 high schools with suspended classes in student and teacher mobilisation

Born in mid-September in the Paris region, the protest movement by French students and teachers has spread over recent weeks across the entire national territory. An initial estimate released today speaks of nearly two thousand schools blocked or closed due to protests against staff shortages, overcrowded classrooms and dilapidated buildings.

The Ministry of Education then provided a more specific figure: 891 of the approximately 3,700 French high schools had classes suspended, either wholly or partially. The two figures refer to different scopes — the overall estimate of schools involved and the ministerial count of high schools alone — and should be read separately.

On the streets, the CGT reported more than 260,000 demonstrators registered as of 1:30 pm today, excluding Paris; the Interior Ministry, by contrast, counted 86,000 in the morning alone. The gap between the two figures reflects the usual difference between union and government counts in French street mobilisations.

In the two weeks since the mobilisation began, French authorities have recorded about 6,000 arrests and around 300 injured among students and school staff. The General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN) has opened eleven investigations since the start of the mobilisation.

Education Minister Édouard Geffray commented on the injury of a fifteen-year-old during clashes in Lens the previous day, calling it:

“a tragedy” (transl. from French) — Édouard Geffray, French Minister of Education

The mobilisation therefore continues on two fronts: that of blocked schools, measured by the ministry on high schools alone, and that of the streets, where the number of demonstrators depends on who is counting. The eleven investigations opened by the IGPN remain the only official figure on the consequences of the clashes that have occurred so far.