Hundreds of schools to shut Monday as student protests rock France

French high school students participate in a demonstration by public sector workers demanding better working conditions and more resources, as part of a day of strikes and protests, in Paris on Sept. 29. | REUTERS

AFP-Jiji

Oct 5, 2026

Paris – Up to 500 schools across France will be totally or partly closed on Monday because of a wave of student protests that has shaken the country, the education minister said.

Lessons will be “totally or partly suspended” in some “400-500” high schools as the security conditions “have not been fulfilled,“ said Education Minister Edouard Geffray on Sunday, adding that 24 schools had been “burned or ransacked” since the start of the movement.

He described the closures as chiefly a security precaution ahead of large-scale protests that the leaders of the movement have called for Tuesday.

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