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PARIS: French high school students on Friday lit fires and hurled projectiles at police who responded by firing tear gas, as new clashes erupted nationwide in an escalating protest movement demanding better conditions in education.
The government says that the pupils in their mid-to-late-teens studying in lycees have every right to air grievances but has condemned violence which has included a policeman being chased, kicked and beaten by a group of youths.
The movement, which began in the Paris region in September and rapidly spread nationwide, has seen teenage pupils at lycees in their final years of schooling block access to buildings and clash with police.
Almost 400 schools were shut on Friday with education disrupted at least 564 high schools out of the 3,700 in the country, according to the education ministry.
The students say their school hours are excessively long, conditions inadequate including overheated classrooms, and that there are too many staff absences.
“For a whole year, we didn’t have a science teacher. We don’t have any textbooks,” said Simon, a 15-year-old who declined to give his surname outside the Turgot high school in central Paris.
“And still, we’re the lucky ones. It’s even worse in the suburbs.”
In the western city of Brest, police used tear gas at the Kerichen high school as pupils hurled projectiles at security forces, an AFP photographer said.
