Education Minister Edouard Geffray said 400 to 500 schools were likely to be fully or partly closed on Monday. He said 24 schools had been burned or ransacked since protests began.
Hundreds of French high schools were closed fully or partly on Monday as student protests over school conditions continued.
Education Minister Edouard Geffray said on Sunday that, of about 3,700 schools, 400 to 500 were likely to be closed fully or partially on Monday because security conditions had not been met. He said 24 schools had been burned or ransacked and 78 teaching staff had been injured since the protests began. Agence France-Presse carried the same closure range.
Government spokesperson Maud Bregeon told CNews on Monday that the priority was to restore order. Al Jazeera reported that nationwide demonstrations started at the end of last month at a high school in a Paris suburb over teacher shortages and then spread. Students have cited teacher absences, long school days and dilapidated buildings.
BFMTV images cited by Al Jazeera showed police and students clashing in Lille, tear gas in Toulouse, and a fire as people tried to break into a school in central Paris. Carole Zerbib, head of the vandalised Lycee Vauquelin in Paris's 13th district, said a group wearing hoods and masks attacked her school.
Movement leaders have called further demonstrations for Tuesday. Geffray described Monday's closures as chiefly a security precaution ahead of that call.
People Sentiments Negative
- Maud Bregeon said the priority was to restore order
- Carole Zerbib said a determined group in hoods and masks attacked her school