PNN – As students returned to school following the autumn break, a number of French high schools once again saw gatherings and the blocking of entrances.
According to the report of Pakistan News Network; citing Agence France-Presse (AFP), French students resumed protests at several high schools on Monday—marking the end of the autumn break—even though the government had announced certain concessions during the holiday period in an attempt to bring the protests to an end.
These protests resumed following a weekend that saw hundreds of thousands of people—including students—take to the streets in various French cities for the third consecutive weekend.
Student protests began in September, initially in response to educational conditions and inequality, and later expanded to include demonstrations concerning the cost of living.
To address the demands of protesters, the French government has announced changes to university admission processes, the recruitment of more teachers, and a reduction in class sizes; however, some students do not consider these measures sufficient.
In the city of Marseille, several trash bins were placed in front of the entrance to a high school on Monday morning. A 16-year-old student told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that the protests have resumed because the responses to the students’ demands were inadequate.
French Minister of Education Édouard Geffray urged students to return to their classrooms to avoid difficulties with their end-of-year exams. He noted that several hundred thousand students have been absent from class over the past four to five weeks.
French President Emmanuel Macron has also called for a calm resumption of classes, asserting that the voices of the youth have been heard.
These protests persist at a time when the French economy—the second-largest in the European Union—is on the brink of recession, and the government faces fiscal constraints in its efforts to reduce debt; a situation that limits the scope for allocating additional funds to address the protesters’ demands.