Nearly 400 schools in France are likely to remain closed on Friday (October 2, 2026) as student protests over educational grievances turned violent in some places. The protests erupted last month mainly over a shortage of teachers and dilapidated school buildings. They later turned violent, leaving several people injured and multiple others arrested.
“There is an active and violent minority (participating in the protests) … We’re not entirely sure that they are even high-school students themselves,” Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin said on Friday. He added that 2,000 people have been arrested since the protests began.
“We have gone from high-school student demonstrations to a public-order disturbance. When people target buses and set schools on fire, it is no longer simply a protest issue,” he also said.
In an interview with broadcaster France 2 on Thursday evening, French Education Minister Edouard Geffray said “a little over 400 schools and other educational establishments” would remain closed on Friday.
Schools set on fire
A source close to Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu confirmed that, at a crisis meeting on Thursday, politicians said the protest movement had been started by the hard left, including members of La France Insoumise (LFI). However, LFI lawmaker Louis Boyard refuted the claim in comments to French broadcasters.
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Officials said student protesters set fire to at least two high schools on Thursday, and teachers were inadvertently splashed with petrol at a third in the southern city of Marseille. In Strasbourg, in eastern France, at least one vehicle was set on fire, while in Toulouse, in the southwest, riot police faced off with groups of young protesters.
Unrest spreads to Belgium
The unrest also spread across the border into Belgium, where high school students in Liège began demonstrating on Thursday. Local media reported that city authorities had decided to shut all schools in Liège on Friday, though a spokesperson for the municipality had not yet confirmed the closures.
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