Key facts
- The education ministry said 41 high schools were blocked, about 1% of the national total.
- Students' unions put the number of blockaded high schools at 150.
- Education minister Édouard Geffray said the blockades were illegal and pupils must return to class.
- Geffray said final-year pupils had missed four or five weeks of classes including holidays.
- Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said he would meet school students' unions again next week.
- Trade unions called a large-scale strike on Thursday with rail workers, teachers and private-sector employees.
Dozens of high schools across France were blockaded on Monday as pupils returned from a two-week holiday, with students' unions ignoring President Emmanuel Macron's call to end a protest movement that has run since September. The education ministry said 41 high schools were blocked, about 1% of the national total, while students' unions put the figure at 150.
In Paris and its suburbs, and in cities including Lille, Toulouse and Marseille, schoolchildren demanding more replacement teachers and repairs to buildings barricaded entrances with wheelie bins. Police outside some schools tried to drag the bins away and made arrests. University students' unions planned further barricades at faculties on Tuesday, and trade unions called a large-scale strike on Thursday, with rail workers, teachers and private-sector employees to join demonstrations over school conditions, the cost of living and low salaries.
Education minister Édouard Geffray said he feared the school year was at risk for final-year pupils who had missed weeks of classes and could not complete coursework or catch up for exams. He said pupils sitting the baccalauréat at the end of the year had gone four or five weeks without classes including holidays, and called the blockades illegal, saying his priority was a return to class.
Nathanaël Combary of the school students' union Renouveau Lycéen, who is also a member of Macron's Renaissance party, said government measures offered the previous week to cap some class sizes and review the university applications platform were inadequate. He told BFMTV that protests were the only way to push for more funding, better access to higher education and repairs to decrepit schools, saying: "Democratically speaking it's a bit scandalous that we have to reach this type of situation to be heard but it's the only solution we have."
In Montpellier, Socialist senator Hussein Bourgi accused the government of misconduct and provocation after video footage showed a 53-year-old school nurse speaking to police near a barricade before being forced face-down to the ground, handcuffed and taken into custody. The local prefect defended the arrest, saying the woman had insulted officers and resisted police.
Nicolas Bonnet of the headteachers' union SNPDEN-UNSA said it was time to return to teaching and supporting pupils, warning that coursework, final-year exams and university applications were at risk. He said he understood why students felt the government had offered too little but urged more dialogue. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said he would meet school students' unions again next week.