PARIS, Oct 9 — France’s education minister yesterday promised 3,000 substitute teachers for the country’s worst-off high schools, after tens of thousands took to the streets nationwide to demand better education and less police brutality.
Students have blocked entrances to hundreds of high schools for more than a week, with squads of riot police deployed — occasionally resulting in violent clashes.
High school students across the country — most aged 15 to 18 — have complained of absent teachers, overloaded timetables, dilapidated classrooms and buildings that cannot cope with rising temperatures.
In a bid to placate the anger, Education Minister Edouard Geffray on the evening news said the teachers would be deployed in the coming days to replace absent staff at the 114 worst-affected of around 3,700 high schools.
