Istanbul (ANTARA) \u2014 A total of 1,260 people have been arrested in the\nParis metropolitan area since student protests began in France, 86 per\ncent of them minors, Paris police said on Thursday (15 October).<\/p>\n
Students continue to blockade several secondary schools and\nuniversities in various parts of France, according to French broadcaster\nBFMTV. The government is facing renewed pressure to respond to their\ndemands ahead of a national demonstration scheduled for Saturday.<\/p>\n
Education Minister Edouard Geffray said protests were continuing at\naround 200 secondary schools nationwide.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said the protests no longer\nrepresented a student movement but had become an \u201curban violence\nmovement\u201d. He condemned \u201ctruly appalling calls for violence\u201d in several\nareas.<\/p>\n
Lecornu said regional councils would be consulted on issues\nconcerning school buildings. He also criticised violent incidents at the\nend of demonstrations.<\/p>\n
Geffray said the government was reviewing the entire university\nadmissions process through Parcoursup, France\u2019s higher education\napplication platform.<\/p>\n
Policy measures on the matter are expected to be finalised by the end\nof October.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe time to make decisions is approaching, but for now we are\ncontinuing to work on it,\u201d he said during a visit to a secondary school\nin Gradignan, south-western France.<\/p>\n
Geffray also said the government had placed two-thirds of the 3,000\nsubstitute teachers it had promised in schools. He said the number of\nsecondary schools classified as facing particular difficulties had\nfallen from 114 last Thursday to 47 this Thursday.<\/p>\n
Geffray hoped that no secondary schools would remain in the \u201cred\nzone\u201d when teaching resumes after the autumn break.<\/p>\n
Student representatives were due to meet Geffray again at the\nMinistry of Education on Thursday at 5.30pm local time (10.30pm\nWIB).<\/p>\n
At a previous meeting on 8 October, student organisations Les\nLyceens! and Union syndicale lyceene called for the protests to\ncontinue.<\/p>\n
Protests have also spread to HEC Paris, a business school in\nJouy-en-Josas, western France. Students there demonstrated in support of\nsecondary school pupils, in what was described as the first such action\nsince the movement began.<\/p>\n
The Lyon prefecture banned a student demonstration scheduled for\nThursday morning, citing the risk of further public disorder, damage to\nbusinesses and violence against security personnel, as seen during\nprevious protests.<\/p>\n
Blockades are continuing at several schools and universities in\nParis, Marseille and the Lyon region.<\/p>\n
In its latest report on the situation, the Paris police prefecture\nsaid 286 police officers and French gendarmes, as well as 13 education\nstaff, had been injured.<\/p>\n
\u201cViolent acts are recurring and growing in intensity,\u201d the prefecture\nsaid, adding that 71 members of the internal security forces were\ninjured during demonstrations on 13 October.<\/p>\n
According to the report, some people uprooted paving stones and threw\nthem at police officers and French gendarmes. Several officers had to be\ntaken to hospital for emergency treatment.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, staff at Paul-Eluard secondary school in Saint-Denis,\nnorth of Paris, condemned what they described as a \u201cviolent\u201d police\nintervention on school grounds when officers sought to arrest a student.\nThey alleged that some officers had struck school staff who tried to\nprevent the arrest.<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/1-260-people-arrested-as-french-student-protests-intensify-1792165919", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }