French government fails to persuade students to end protests

France's government failed on Monday to persuade students to end their protests. After a meeting in Paris with Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, representatives of high school and university students said they were not satisfied with the government's proposals and would keep protesting.

Education and university ministers Édouard Geffray and Philippe Baptiste also attended the meetings. After the meeting, Louis Letoublon, vice-president of the organisation “Les Lycéens!”, said not all of the students' demands had been met and that they would see the protests through to the end.

Letoublon called on high school students to continue protests on October 31 and November 5. Student groups said they would continue protesting this weekend and the weekend after.

The students' demands include up to 250,000 extra places in higher education and universities, better conditions in educational institutions, more teachers, and a major overhaul of the selection process for university entry.

On Monday the government told students it would look into reforming France's university admissions platform, Parcoursup, which student groups consider opaque and a source of inequality, starting in 2028.

The government also promised more money to renovate schools, an extra 15,000 places in higher education in industry, health and technical education, and a maximum of 28 students per classroom in the first year of high school.

Those measures, widely reported by French media, were confirmed by student representatives who attended the meetings. The proposals were due to be detailed at a press conference later on Monday evening.

The university union UNEF said earlier in the afternoon, as news of the government's proposals began to circulate, that the government was once again missing the point. It said that if the government's strategy was to show contempt for their demands, students would remain mobilised in the streets and on university campuses and would not back down.

Student demonstrations and blockades in schools and universities earlier this month were among the first expressions of broader social unrest, which later turned into protests over the cost of living and spiralled into riots two weeks ago.