Paris (France) (AFP) – At the end of a new day of blockade of high schools on Friday, marked by tensions, high school organizations called for the continuation of the mobilization next Tuesday, for lack of “concrete measures” proposed by the Minister of Education, according to them.

Published on: 02/10/2026 - 08:40 Modified on: 02/10/2026 - 22:57

Édouard Geffray announced, after meeting them, the upcoming launch of an "action plan" to "accelerate the replacement" of teachers, particularly in the first and final year classes, and plans, regarding school rhythms, to initiate "in-depth work", while recognizing that he would "not be able to make a decision for the start of the 2027 school year".

The High School Union (USL) reacted by calling "to continue the mobilization (...) and to join the Act III movement on Tuesday", a day of major national demonstration, according to Ryad Rani, the president of this student union.

Started on September 17, the protest movement ignited Thursday in many cities in France and continued on Friday with "735 establishments" disrupted, or "30% less than yesterday", pointed out Édouard Geffray.

“Overall, we have (...) had less violence against staff, since today three people were unfortunately injured compared to 31 yesterday,” he added.

According to the Minister of Higher Education Philippe Baptiste, interviewed Friday evening on BFM TV, around forty "university buildings or parts of campuses all over France" were also "disturbed" on Friday.

There were 1,747 arrests for Friday alone, more than 5,000 since Monday, in connection with the blockades of high schools, for his part indicated the Minister of the Interior Laurent Nuñez on TF1 Friday evening.

In La Ciotat (Bouches-du-Rhône) in particular, “a teacher was intentionally doused with gasoline, then physically attacked by two individuals” on Friday, according to the authorities.

James, a second-year student in Lille, deplored "the extremely violent police repression which inevitably fuels the anger of high school students." “Because when we see our comrades being beaten, strangled, gouged out, gassed in all directions, while we are just trying to be able to have a dialogue with the government, it inevitably makes us angry.”

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Clashes between young people and the police have been noted in several cities, notably in Paris and Strasbourg where the police intervened on a university campus at the request of the university president.

“This morning, our high school was supposed to be open but young people who are not from high school came just to set the fire,” testified Eliott, 16, a first grader in an establishment in La Rochelle.

“The goal is to make peaceful movements to make ourselves heard and these thugs are doing us a complete disservice by burning our high schools,” also regrets Maëlle, a student at the Bordeaux François-Mauriac high school, damaged by a fire on Thursday.

Nearly 400 high schools (out of 3,700 in the country) remained closed. The Mandela high school in Nantes, whose entrance hall was destroyed the day before by a fire, will keep its doors closed until the All Saints' Day holidays.

Many establishments have tried to provide distance learning.

At the Don Bosco private high school in Nice, the implementation of distance learning courses was quite chaotic, according to a student's parent speaking on condition of anonymity: "Some teachers gave up because their planned face-to-face course was difficult to adapt at the last minute."

“In danger”

On Thursday, "1,027 establishments", out of around 3,700 high schools in France, had "been affected by the movement", according to the Ministry of the Interior which recorded nearly 2,000 arrests.

The first police detentions led, in the courts, to the first sentences to community service.

Minister of Justice Gérald Darmanin also asked prosecutors to hold parents civilly liable in the event of damage caused by their children in order to make them “pay for the reparations”.

The damage to high schools will cost several million euros, according to estimates from the Ile-de-France, Grand Est, Hauts-de-France and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regions.

Seven months before the presidential election, in an electric social and political climate, this mobilization is more than sensitive.

According to the Prime Minister's office, the movement would be a "maneuver organized by LFI and its ultra-left proxies". LFI coordinator Manuel Bompard criticized Matignon for “sinking into conspiracy”.

Among the students who also joined the mobilization this week, Kyziah Maurin-Sene, 18 years old, in the first year of Art History in Strasbourg. For her, “this movement of anger is political but it is the youth who are political in themselves”. “It wasn’t the left who told us ‘go demonstrate’”

© 2026 AFP

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