French High School Students Resume Blockades as Government Warns of Exam Risks

High school students in France blockaded dozens of campuses on Monday as classes resumed following a two-week holiday, defying government appeals and demanding better school funding.

The Ministry of Education reported that 41 high schools were obstructed across the country, representing about 1 percent of the national total of 3,700 institutions.

The demonstrations threaten to further disrupt an academic year already strained by weeks of unrest over living costs, school conditions, and university admissions.

“We have pupils who are sitting their baccalauréat at the end of the year who for hundreds of thousands of them have had no classes for four or five weeks if you include holidays, and for whom the school year is now at risk,” said Édouard Geffray, the education minister.

Geffray added that such actions were illegal and that authorities could not allow the academic future of hundreds of thousands of pupils to be compromised.

Demonstrators barricaded school entrances using wheelie bins in Paris and surrounding suburbs, as well as in cities including Marseille, Toulouse, Lille, and Rennes.

Police officers intervened at several locations to clear the blockades, removing bins and making arrests while facing occasional resistance.

Student leaders rejected government proposals announced last week, which included capping certain class sizes and phasing in changes to the university admissions platform.

“The President hasn't listened to us,” said Pierre Sourzat, head of the student group Lyceens!. “It's smoke and mirrors.”

Student organizations and labor unions have announced plans for further disruptions on Tuesday, followed by a large-scale nationwide strike on Thursday involving rail workers and teachers.