High school protests resumed on Monday, November 2, after two weeks of school holidays, with blockades reported at several institutions. The dispute over how widespread the disruption was intensified on Monday and Tuesday, November 3, as the government and student groups published contrasting counts.
France’s education ministry said 40 of the country’s 3,700 high schools were blocked on Monday and 48 on Tuesday, when student unions had called for a national blockade. The ministry also said three-quarters of departments had reported no disruption. Education Minister Edouard Geffray described the protests as a “clearly residual” movement that was nevertheless harming students.
The ministry has not provided detailed tallies of actions outside schools since mid-October, and it did not explain what its blockade figures include. Teacher and school-leader unions consider the government’s numbers too low. The SNPDEN-UNSA, the largest union representing school leaders, counted 35 fully or partly blocked institutions in Paris alone on Tuesday.
The Union syndicale lycéenne, meanwhile, claimed there were 500 blockades nationwide on Tuesday, compared with 196 on Monday. Estimates also differed for universities: the higher education ministry reported disruption at 51 of 184 institutions, while the Union étudiante said one university in two was affected.
Students involved in blockades in the Paris region described a mix of determination and concern about the consequences for their schooling after weeks without classes. The contrasting estimates leave the scale of the renewed mobilisation contested as students return from the holidays.
Sources: Le Monde.