PARIS: Almost 400 high schools were closed across France on Friday over a week-long protest movement by pupils that has seen dozens of staff members wounded and some 2,000 people arrested, officials said.
The movement, which began last week in the Paris region and rapidly spread nationwide, has seen teenage pupils at lycees in their final years of schooling block access to their establishments and clash with police.
The students say their school hours are excessively long, conditions at schools are inadequate, including overheated classrooms, and there are too many staff absences. The government says the grievances are legitimate, but violence is not.
