France: Thousands of high school students protest cuts in education

Paris schools are now on holiday for a fortnight, and the rest of the country is just returning. The April 29 mobilisation included 4,000 in Toulon, 2,000 in Nice, 3,000 in Tours and Rouen, 2,000 in Marseilles and more than 1,000 in Orléans, Strasbourg and Toulouse. According to Agence France Presse, as many as 3,500 primary teachers demonstrated in Rennes against class closures. In the Gard department, the education authority reported 66 percent of secondary school pupils on strike.

Slogans reported from different mobilisations included: We are high school students at war with the state, When reason fails, the street prevails, Primary education spoiled, high schools botched, Not the teachers, not the sans papiers [undocumented immigrants], the government should be kicked out, Fewer cops, more teachers.

The cuts in teaching jobs next year come on top of 8,700 this school year and are part of the plan to axe 80,000 teachers positions by 2012. It is estimated that the number of high school pupils will have risen by 150,000 in the same period. Claims of the government that it will compensate for these losses by offering overtime work have been rejected by teachers and parents alike.