French students set fire to Paris school entrance on eve of nationwide day of action
More than 400 schools were disrupted by late morning, as the government promised a bill to dock family benefits over damage.
Incidents were reported outside schools in France on Monday morning, a day before a major action called by the Union syndicale lycéenne (USL), a high-school students' union.
Students have been protesting over overcrowded classrooms, teacher shortages and crumbling facilities.
Among the schools hit on Monday was the Vauquelin secondary school in Paris's 13th arrondissement, where "around ten hooded and masked young people came up to the entrance", according to headteacher Carole Zerbib. They "brought bins and inflammable items" to the doorway and then set them alight, she told French news channel BFMTV.
As a result, the school will remain closed for the day. "These are criminal acts that fall under the law and must be punished in the harshest possible way," said Jean-Didier Berger, France's junior interior minister.
Demonstrations and tensions were also reported outside the Voltaire, Sophie-Germain and Turgot high schools in Paris, as well as in the cities of Lyon and Lille. "Around forty higher-education sites" are also expected to be disrupted, Higher Education Minister Philippe Baptiste told the radio station Sud Radio.
By late morning, 413 schools had been or were still "subject to actions or disruptions since the start of the day", according to France's education ministry. That represents a 27% fall compared with the same time on Friday, although 40% of the schools had not previously been affected.
"Vandals pay" bill
In response to the violence seen in recent days, government spokesperson Maud Bregeon told news channel CNews that a bill known as "casseurs-payeurs", or "vandals pay", would be examined in the Senate on 27 October.
"It will allow us to dock family benefits… for damage caused by adults or minors" and "to introduce a form of collective responsibility", she said.
Mathilde Panot, who leads the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) group in the National Assembly, told public broadcaster franceinfo that "there is no political response" to the high-school students' demands, only "a policing response".
Tuesday's day of action, dubbed "Act III", is backed by a broad alliance of education unions. The centre-left Socialist Party (PS) has also called on people to stand "alongside" high-school students.
Hundreds of French schools closed as students maintain protest pressure
Nearly 500 highschools across France were closed or partially closed on Monday as students continued their demonstrations over poor learning conditions, ahead of a day of wider protests scheduled for Tuesday.
Issued on: 05/10/2026 - RFI
France high school students protested or disrupted lessons at 413 of the country's 3,700 secondary schools on Monday, the education ministry said, down from the number of schools affected last week.
The ministry, which had reported 564 schools were affected at around midday on Friday last week, said the drop was due to "sustained dialogue with high school students".
The shutdown comes after France's Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu sent a list of suggestions to several of his top ministers aimed at solving the stand-off.
In his letter, Lecornu called for the priority handling of long-term absences and unfilled positions. He also proposed using artificial intelligence to create school timetables.
The review outlining the costs of the measures and when they can be implemented will be presented to the government before the end of the month, said Lecornu.
"This dialogue must lead to visible changes in secondary schools," he added. "At the same time, we will not give in to violence. We will support pupils and staff who have been attacked, as well as injured police officers and gendarmes."
He called a meeting for Tuesday with regional presidents to discuss overhauling the country's often-dilapidated school buildings.
The government is also hoping to pass through parliament a bill to make those who are responsible for damaging public property pay for repairs themselves, instead of drawing from taxpayer money.
At least 600 officers have been injured in the skirmishes that have broken out across France since a protest on 17 September over lack of staff and poor conditions at a high school in Creteil, just outside Paris.
The government says 78 teachers have been injured and police have arrested 5,000 people - the vast majority of whom are under 18.
Education Minister Edouard Geffray said 24 schools had been set on fire or ransacked.
Protesters have also accused the police of using disproportionate force, and internal investigations have been opened into at least three instances of alleged police brutality.
Violence from outside schools
Yvon Manac’h, the principal of Clémence-Royer High School in Fonsorbes near Toulouse, told French broadcaster Franceinfo: "Extreme violence in some schools is often linked to factors outside the school, and not to our students.”
Manac'h, who also serves as academic secretary for the principals' union SNPDEN, added: "It’s not all a question of budget; it’s time to consider the effects of the latest high-school reform. If timetables are so complicated, it’s a direct consequence of this reform, which has turned into a real bureaucratic nightmare.”
A broad coalition of national education trade unions has called for participation in Tuesday’s protests.
The CGT has promised to stand "side by side" with secondary school pupils and has called on striking energy sector workers to join them.
Manuel Bompard, a coordinator for hard-left party La France Insoumise (LFI), said on Sunday that the party deplored the violence. He added that the government should not be reducing the student movement to violent incidents.
"If there were even more of us and if all adults took to the streets to show solidarity with the secondary school pupils, the mobilisation would go more smoothly and perhaps we would also be taken more seriously in this mobilisation," said Bally Bagayoko, the LFI mayor of Saint-Denis, during a rally organised in his town to the north of Paris.
The Communist presidential candidate, Fabien Roussel has urged teachers, workers and activists to support the secondary school pupils.
"The secondary school pupils aren’t going to back down, and the university students even less so," said Leila Nehari, a student taking part in a rally in Saint-Denis on Sunday.
"It’s really going to be a week of blockades, blockades, blockades, blockades."
Several university student unions, as well as France's largest federation of parents' associations for public schools and at least six trade unions in the education sector, say they will join the demonstrations on 6 October.
Paris (France) (AFP) – French high-school students on Monday pressed on with a protest movement over learning conditions that has rocked the European nation since last week, with lessons disrupted at hundreds of schools.
Issued on: 05/10/2026 - RFI
Students trickled into some schools despite ongoing protests outside their gates, ahead of a day of larger demonstrations expected on Tuesday.
Since late September, pupils have barred the entrances to hundreds of schools, complaining of teacher absences, overloaded timetables, dilapidated classrooms and buildings ill-adapted to rising temperatures, among other grievances.
The teenage discontent has erupted with just months to go before elections next year to replace centrist President Emmanuel Macron, with the far right eyeing its best chance yet at seizing power.
The government has sought to address the grievances, while accusing hard-left activists of having hijacked the protest movement.
More than 400 out of France's 3,700 high schools, known as lycees, were partially or totally closed on Monday morning, the education ministry said.
A third of the 468 lycees for teenagers aged 15 to 17 were to be closed in the Paris region, authorities predicted on Sunday.
In the capital's central third district on Monday morning, dozens of teenage students chanted in protest, as passing cars honked their horns in support, while others made their way into class.
"No means, no silence," read one cardboard sign outside the Turgot high school.
'Not enough teachers'
In the western city of Rennes, more than 20 pupils gathered outside the Montaigne lycee, one clutching a sign that read "Not enough teachers", but staff allowed other students into their classrooms.
In Bordeaux, in the southwest, some students returned to the classroom while others continued to demonstrate, in the heavy presence of riot police.
Some protesters outside the Gustave Eiffel high school fired fireworks in the direction of the police, who responded with some tear gas, but overall the situation remained calm, AFP reporters said.
In the northern city of Lille, masked protesters destroyed bus shelters or set fire to dustbins, as police fired tear gas towards demonstrators.
The movement started on September 17 at a high school in the Paris suburb of Creteil, in support of teachers striking over a lack of staff and resources.
It gained momentum and spread across France, at times spiralling into vandalism, including the destruction of bus shelters, the burning of school entrances and clashes between protesters and security forces.
Since the start of the movement, 24 schools had been "burned or ransacked", according to the education minister.
More than 5,000 people, 85 percent of them minors, have been arrested.
Protesters have also accused the police of using disproportionate force, and internal investigations have been opened into at least three instances of alleged police brutality.
'Parental responsibility'
Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu set out a timetable on Sunday urging local authorities to prioritise filling gaps left by long-term teacher absences and unfilled posts.
He called a meeting for Tuesday with regional presidents to discuss overhauling the country's often-dilapidated school buildings.
The government is also hoping to pass through parliament a bill to make those who are responsible for damaging public property pay for repairs themselves, instead of drawing from taxpayer money.
Government spokeswoman Maud Bregeon defended the bill.
"When you have 14-, 15-, 16-year-olds who, at 9 am, are burning bus shelters or -- perhaps even more seriously -- the high school where they study, that raises the question of parental responsibility," she told Europe1/CNews broadcaster.
Lecornu has said the draft law, first presented before the protests, would allow these sums to be "taken from family allowances and housing benefits, while ensuring a minimum income is preserved".
The head of the main CGT labour union, Sophie Binet, slammed what she called a "populist announcement", which she said would "end up targeting the most vulnerable families".
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© 2026 AFP
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