French School Blockades Resume Before a Thursday Strike
French pupils went back to school after a two-week holiday and went straight back to blockading the gates. The protest, which began in September, has grown into one of the biggest protest movements of Emmanuel Macron's presidency.
Bins against the gates
On Monday, schoolchildren in Paris and its suburbs, and in cities including Lille, Toulouse and Marseille, closed school entrances with wheelie bins. They are demanding more replacement teachers and repairs to run-down buildings. Police at some schools pulled at the bins and detained people.
Student unions disregarded Macron's call to end the blockades. University students' unions planned more barricades at faculties on Tuesday.
Trade unions have called a large strike for Thursday. Rail workers, teachers and private-sector staff are due to join demonstrations in cities across France. They are backing the pupils' demands and also protesting rising living costs and low pay.
Two counts of how many schools are shut
By the ministry's count, 41 lycées were blockaded, about 1% of all of them. Student unions put the number at 150.
Exams and coursework at stake
Education minister Édouard Geffray called the blockades illegal and said his priority is to get children back into class. He said hundreds of thousands of pupils preparing for the baccalauréat have had no lessons for four or five weeks, counting holidays. In his words, the school year is now at risk for them.
Nicolas Bonnet, of the headteachers' union SNPDEN-UNSA, said coursework, final-year exams and university applications are in danger. He understands why pupils think the government has not done enough, and he asked for more dialogue. "It's time for us to return to our job: teaching and supporting pupils," he said.
Students say the offer falls short
Last week the government offered to cap some class sizes and review the university applications platform. Nathanaël Combary of the school students' union Renouveau Lycéen, who is also a member of Macron's party Renaissance, said that does not go far enough. He called for more money for schools, wider access to university and repairs to crumbling buildings.
"Democratically speaking it's a bit scandalous that we have to reach this type of situation to be heard," he told BFMTV. He said protest is the only route pupils have.
Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu plans another round of talks with the school students' unions next week.
An arrest in Montpellier
In Montpellier, video showed a 53-year-old school nurse speaking to police near a barricade before she was forced face-down, handcuffed and taken into custody. The Socialist senator Hussein Bourgi accused the government of misconduct and provocation. The local prefect, who is in charge of police operations, defended the arrest. The prefect's account is that she insulted officers and put up resistance.
Our view
Two clocks are now running: the strike on Thursday and the meeting between Lecornu and the student unions next week. The government counts 41 blocked schools and the unions 150, so each side can claim its own picture of how far the movement has spread. Whether the exam warnings move pupils back to class, or harden the unions instead, will show in how many gates are still barricaded after Thursday.
Source: The Guardian