New rallies urged in France as protests disrupt over 730 schools

Paris (France) (AFP) – French high school students on Friday lit fires and hurled projectiles at police who responded by firing tear gas, as activists urged new rallies in an escalating protest movement demanding better conditions in education.

The government says that the pupils in their mid-to-late-teens studying in lycees have every right to air grievances but has condemned violence which has included a policeman being chased, kicked and beaten by a group of youths.

In La Ciotat in southern France, a teacher was sprayed with petrol before being physically assaulted by two individuals, officials said.

A young man wounded in Tours lost the use of his right eye, the city’s prosecutor said Friday. He was injured on Wednesday as students clashed with police, said the local prefecture.

On Friday, unions and student groups urged protesters to keep up the pressure on the government and stage new rallies on Tuesday.

“High school students are expecting concrete measures from this government, and so far we have not received them,” said Ryad Rani, head of the USL high school union.

The movement, which began in the Paris region in September and spread nationwide, has seen teenage pupils at lycees in their final years of schooling block access to buildings and clash with police.

The students say their school hours are excessively long, conditions inadequate including overheated classrooms, and that there are too many staff absences.

The protests have had political reverberations seven months before voters choose President Emmanuel Macron’s successor.

Of the country’s 3,700 schools, 735 were affected “in one way or another” on Friday, down 30 percent from Thursday, Education Minister Edouard Geffray said after talks with activists.

He said that three staff members had been injured, compared with 31 on Thursday.

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said there had been 1,747 arrests on Friday, adding there had been “projectiles thrown, attacks on law enforcement, teachers, journalists, passersby.”

Geffray said an action plan aimed at “speeding up the replacement” of absent teachers would be launched.

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