France to Shut Up to 500 Schools Monday as Student Protests Escalate

French education authorities announced on Sunday that as many as 500 high schools will be either fully or partially closed when the new week begins, following several days of confrontations between student demonstrators and riot police that have shaken cities across the country.

Education Minister Édouard Geffray said lessons would be "totally or partly suspended" at somewhere between 400 and 500 lycées, citing security conditions that "have not been fulfilled" on many campuses. The decision marks one of the most sweeping disruptions to French secondary education in recent memory and signals that the government expects the unrest to persist rather than fade.

Geffray also disclosed that 24 schools have been "burned or ransacked" since the demonstrations first broke out, a figure that underscores the physical toll of the protests on the country's education infrastructure. Images from cities such as Toulouse have shown riot police deployed outside school gates, with plumes of smoke and scattered debris becoming familiar scenes over the past week.

What began as a localized expression of frustration last week has since widened into a national movement. Protests that started in the Paris region have spread to cities including Montpellier, Nantes and Marseille, drawing thousands of high school students into the streets. The demonstrators are voicing anger over what they describe as deteriorating education standards, and their demands center on three core grievances: a shortage of teachers, overcrowded classrooms, and buildings that have fallen into disrepair.

The scale of the disruption has prompted sharp responses from multiple government ministries. On Friday, Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin said 735 of France's roughly 3,700 high schools had been affected "one way or another" by violent protests, a striking proportion that suggests the unrest has touched a substantial slice of the national school system. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez reported that 1,747 people were arrested on Friday alone, and the AFP news agency has since reported that more than 5,000 people have been detained since the movement began. Roughly 85 percent of those arrested are minors, according to AFP, raising difficult questions about how the French state should handle children caught up in political demonstrations.

The government has placed blame for the worst of the violence on outside actors. Geffray claimed that "activists — particularly from the far-left — have infiltrated the high school student movement, hijacked it from the students themselves, and engaged in extreme violence." He described the situation as a clear risk to both staff and pupils, and revealed that 78 education staff members have been wounded since the protests began — a figure he characterized as unprecedented in his experience.

Security measures will remain heavy. The education minister warned that the number of schools affected on Monday could be comparable to Friday's total, though he promised a "partial, progressive return to lessons" as conditions allow. The coming days will therefore test whether authorities can restore calm without further inflaming a student population that appears increasingly organized and determined.

Organizers of the protests have shown no sign of backing down. According to AFP, they have called for demonstrations to continue on Tuesday, accusing the government of failing to deliver "concrete measures" in response to their demands. That accusation strikes at the heart of the standoff: students and their supporters argue that the problems they are protesting — teacher shortages, class sizes and crumbling facilities — are structural and long-standing, not the product of a single budget cycle.

Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu sought to respond to those concerns on Sunday, saying his government is taking further steps to "address the difficulties faced by high school students and educational staff." Among the measures he outlined were ensuring that classes continue, improving school facilities, better organizing the school day, and making the French university admissions platform more transparent — a reference to Parcoursup, the system that many students and families find confusing and opaque. Lecornu also said the government is accelerating review of its "vandal-pays" bill, legislation designed to ensure that those responsible for damaging public property bear the cost of their actions.

The political stakes are considerable. The unrest has drawn comparisons to earlier waves of French protest movements that began with narrow grievances before expanding into broader challenges to government policy, and the involvement of minors in large numbers complicates both the policing and the political response. With more than 5,000 arrests recorded and hundreds of schools affected, the government faces pressure to demonstrate that it can protect students, support teachers, and maintain public order simultaneously.

For families across France, Monday will bring uncertainty. Parents in affected areas will need to arrange childcare or alternative supervision at short notice, while teachers and administrators must decide how to keep lessons running in buildings that may be damaged or deemed unsafe. The education ministry's promise of a "partial, progressive return" suggests a phased approach rather than an immediate full reopening, meaning disruption could continue well beyond the start of the week.

The bigger question is whether the government's proposed reforms — improved facilities, a more transparent admissions process, and cost recovery from vandals — will be enough to satisfy a movement that has already shown its willingness to sustain pressure over multiple days. Protest organizers have framed the government's response so far as inadequate, and their call for further demonstrations on Tuesday indicates that the confrontation is likely to intensify before it subsides. For now, France's schools remain both the subject of the dispute and the frontline of its consequences.