After returning from a two-week vacation, French media recorded a limited closure of secondary schools in the context of the student protests that the country has been witnessing for weeks. The Ministry of Education said that the number of closed schools by 08:30 GMT had reached 42 schools, or only about one percent of the schools in the country.
Published on: 02/11/2026 - 17:37
High school students resumed protesting on Monday at a slower pace, compared to the demonstrations of previous weeks, at a time when schools opened their doors again, after a two-week holiday, according to what local media announced.
Protesters tried to close a limited number of secondary schools in Paris, Marseille and Rennes. The Ministry of Education said that the number of closed schools by 08:30 GMT reached 42 schools, or only about one percent of France’s schools.
During the weeks before the holiday, hundreds of schools in the country, the total number of which exceeds three thousand, witnessed closure due to protests in the weeks before the holiday. Then these protests, which began in the suburbs of Paris in September, spread throughout the country and expanded beyond education-related demands to also focus on the high cost of living, which attracted the participation of trade unions and activists, but some of these protests sometimes turned violent.
Read also: France: More than 770 people were arrested during Saturday’s protests and an investigation opened into an “attempted murder”
Last month, protests in France turned violent, with clashes erupting with the police and riots in several cities, during which stores were looted, in a test for the government.
Education Minister Edouard Jeffrey told France Inter radio on Monday morning, “With regard to closures, or rather attempts to close, this phenomenon is very marginal, as we are only talking about a small number of educational units, and some individual schools.”
He stressed that protests are permitted, but preventing access to schools is illegal. Students want to modernize dilapidated schools, increase the number of teachers, and provide more university seats, as well as abolishing the university admission system, which they believe lacks social justice.
A wave of protests led by those referred to as Generation Z swept European countries, including Germany, Italy, Belgium and Albania, due to growing dissatisfaction with the high costs of living, the deteriorating condition of schools, and what they see as widespread corruption.
France 24/Reuters
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