French student unions vow to continue protests after government pledges 3,000 teachers
Student unions pledged to keep protesting after France promised teachers to fill staffing gaps, with 141 schools still closed and nationwide strikes planned for Tuesday.
Paris, France. French student unions vowed on Friday to continue protests after the government pledged to deploy about 3,000 teachers to fill staffing gaps, a measure they described as their first major victory. The education ministry said 141 schools remained closed across the country.
Protests spread to elite universities
The protests, now in their third week, have grown into a wider movement with increasing support from elite universities in Paris. Some university students have joined to express anger at what they describe as a dysfunctional education system, worsened by spending cuts driven by France’s budget pressures.
Police cleared a blockade at Assas university, France’s top law school, in central Paris on Friday morning, footage broadcast by BFM TV showed. Nearby, the elite engineering school Mines Paris was also disrupted by blockades.
The Institut Catholique, a private university known for its particularly conservative outlook, said on its website that it would move classes online because its campus was blockaded.
Student and teacher unions have called for another round of nationwide school strikes next Tuesday.
Government pledges teachers to address shortages
Late on Thursday, the government promised to send about 3,000 fully qualified teachers who had not yet started work to fill staffing gaps, one of the protesters’ main grievances.
Student unions welcomed the pledge as their first substantive success. Marius Mesnil, a representative of a high school student union, told Franceinfo radio that the concession showed it was worthwhile to continue protesting.
“I find it crazy we need to block hundreds of high schools just to get a vacancy plan,” he said.
Education Minister Edouard Geffray told broadcaster TF1 that the measure took effect immediately and would cost “several dozen million euros”.
Government faces spending pressures
The unrest challenges a government seeking to balance demands for greater education spending with the need to curb public debt. It also risks reviving the kind of street protests that have historically forced French leaders to retreat on austerity measures.
Markets are monitoring the government’s response to the protests.
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