France Pledges €4bn for School Repairs as Students Vow to Keep Protesting

The French government moved on Monday to calm a youth protest movement that has shut schools for five weeks, offering billions in repairs and new limits on class sizes. Student leaders accepted the talks but rejected the package as incomplete, urging pupils to keep barricading school gates and joining street demonstrations. The dispute pits the state's ability to fund building fixes against protesters who say conditions in classrooms have become unteachable.

Education Minister Édouard Geffray announced a €4bn loan to regional authorities to repair school buildings. He said some facilities were so run-down they were "not fit" for teaching. Pupils have reported collapsing ceilings, mould, broken toilets, missing chairs and windows that will not close. Geffray also said class sizes for 15-year-olds in the first year of high school would be capped at 28, applying first to the 50% of schools in lower-income areas and to all high schools next year. He said additional teaching posts would be created and the baccalaureate system reviewed.

Higher education minister Philippe Baptiste said 15,000 new places would be added in higher education, concentrated in vocational courses. The government also said Parcoursup, the university application platform critics call opaque and unfair, would be changed in 2027 and replaced by a new system in 2028. Parliament debates the issue on Wednesday.

Pierre Sourzat of the student union Les Lycéens said on France Info: "Today we're at the negotiating table, we're able to negotiate with the government. We're in a power struggle and we still need to call for continued mobilisation to meet a maximum of our demands." Louis Letoublon, who met Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu for the union, said: "Not all our demands were met. We'll go on for as long as it takes."

The confrontation has turned violent. Several children have been maimed or seriously injured, allegedly by police explosive weapons, and hundreds of minors have been held in police custody. On 17 October France saw its worst day of violence in years, with looting, fires and damage to state buildings. Authorities have imposed curfews in some cities and barred certain protests.

President Emmanuel Macron, visiting Marseille on Monday, said demonstrations were likely to continue and called 31 October a "day of risk". He told police it was "not normal" for the country to be in "such a state of turmoil" six months before a presidential election. Interior minister Laurent Nuñez said far-right groups in Nice and Montpellier moved in "organised formations" to target protesters at the weekend; 11 suspects face charges.