French schools are set to reopen on Monday, Nov. 2, after closing on Friday, Oct. 16, in the middle of a youth movement whose scale has not been seen in decades, according to Le Monde. The question hanging over the return is whether blockades will also resume outside lycées from Monday morning. Social media groups run by lycéens, ministry offices and school administrations are all waiting to see how calls to mobilize from lycéen and student organizations will translate on the ground.
Despite commitments made by the government, lycéen and student organizations have called for blocking establishments from Monday or Tuesday, according to the available account. But with pressure from the baccalauréat and Parcoursup growing, some pupils are asking questions about the movement’s next step. The organizations have said they want to “maintain pressure.”
The uncertainties are numerous after the events of the past two weeks. For lycéens, the Toussaint holidays lasted 15 days, but relative to the movement they launched in mid-September, the period felt much longer. From the Oct. 17 demonstrations onward, the mobilization widened considerably. A movement “against the high cost of living” and in defense of public services joined in, bringing together hundreds of thousands of demonstrators across France, who also gathered on Oct. 24 and Oct. 31.
Schools had shut their doors on Oct. 16 while the youth movement was still going strong and showed no sign of running out of steam, the report said. As the new school term begins, the central unknown is whether the return to classrooms will bring a return of blockades at lycée gates, and how students balance mobilization with the academic stakes ahead.
Sources: Le Monde.