France closes up to 500 schools on Monday as more protests planned

Up to 500 schools in France will be closed or partly closed on Monday as authorities brace for another week of student protests .

Lessons will be totally or partly suspended across hundreds of schools because security conditions “have not been fulfilled”, the education minister, Édouard Geffray, said on Sunday.

The minister said 24 schools had been burnt or ransacked and 78 education staff members injured. The number of school closures on Monday would be comparable to Friday’s but the government envisaged a “partial, progressive return to lessons”, said Geffray.

Thousands of teenagers staged widespread demonstrations and erected barricades last week to protest against what they said was underfunding and neglect of the education system.

Clashes with riot police left hundreds of people injured, led to more than 5,000 arrests, mostly of minors, and jolted president Emmanuel Macron’s centrist administration.