Nearly 200 high schools across France were expected to stay closed on Wednesday as student blockades continued, with representatives due to meet the education and higher education ministers on Thursday to press their demand for €10 billion ($11 billion) in investment, says TRT World.
The government, for its part, promised proposals to improve university admissions.
Education Minister Edouard Geffray told broadcaster BFMTV that 96 percent of high schools were open and that no disruption had been reported in three-quarters of the country’s departments, a day after the fifth round of nationwide protests.
Several schools in Paris remained blockaded, among them Voltaire, Helene-Boucher and the Balzac school complex, where the administration suspended in-person classes, citing difficulties accessing the site and safety concerns.
Geffray said Higher Education Minister Philippe Baptiste would submit proposals to the prime minister by the end of October to improve Parcoursup, France’s university admissions platform.
He said he was open to “adjustments, possibly substantial ones”, but questioned what would replace the platform if it were abolished.
According to Geffray, fewer than 20 percent of the 90,000 contributions submitted through a government platform collecting students’ complaints concerned Parcoursup.
The minister ruled out immediate changes to the baccalaureate, France’s school-leaving examination.
“I’m not going to change the baccalaureate six months before a presidential election; we need to stop constantly reforming,” he said.
Pierre Sourzat, president of the organisation Les Lyceens!, told Franceinfo that students expected concrete measures after receiving “only crumbs”.
Student representatives are due to meet Geffray and Baptiste on Thursday afternoon.
Protest organisers have not called for a sixth round of demonstrations on Thursday, but the Union of High School Students urged protesters to maintain their blockades.
Its president, Ryad Rani, and other student representatives also called for participation in a “yellow vest” demonstration scheduled for Saturday.
Meanwhile, classes resumed at Kleber High School in Strasbourg, where students and police had clashed in recent weeks.
