French High School Blockades Resume on Monday

Dozens of high schools across France were blockaded again on Monday, November 2, 2026, as students pressed demands over school conditions and the high cost of living. By 0830 GMT, 41 high schools had been blockaded, according to the Education Ministry, a figure Reuters reported as about 1% of the country's high schools.

Pupils in Paris and its suburbs, Lille, Toulouse and Marseille barricaded school entrances with wheelie bins. They said they wanted more replacement teachers and repairs to school buildings. Police officers outside some schools tried to drag the bins away, and arrests were made, according to The Guardian.

The blockades have continued since September, despite a call by President Emmanuel Macron to end them. Earlier this autumn, the movement was marked by violence. Student protesters started fires in at least two high schools during demonstrations reported on October 1, and teachers were accidentally splashed with petrol at a third school. A student protest on Thursday, October 8, drew 71,500 people, Reuters reported.

Education Minister Édouard Geffray said the lycée blockades were "illegal" and that his priority was for children to return to class. A lycée is a French high school. He warned that the school year was "at risk" for many final-year pupils. He said hundreds of thousands of pupils preparing for the baccalauréat, the national exam that ends secondary school, had no classes for four or five weeks, including holidays.

The government offered measures last week. They include capping some class sizes and reviewing the university applications platform. Nathanaël Combary, a student leader who is a member of the school students' union Renouveau Lycéen, described the platform review as inadequate. Combary is also a member of Emmanuel Macron's centrist party, Renaissance.

University student unions have planned further barricades at faculties on Tuesday, November 3. Trade unions have called for a large-scale strike on Thursday, November 5. Rail workers, teachers and private-sector employees plan to join demonstrations in support of the schoolchildren's demands. Unions said they were disappointed after their October meeting with the government, and called for a large mobilisation on that date, as Euronews reported.