The China Mail - 'Afraid for my future': Tens of thousands demand better education in France

Students have blocked the entrances to hundreds of high schools for 15- to 17-year-olds since late September, complaining of missing teachers, overloaded timetables, dilapidated classrooms and buildings that cannot cope with rising temperatures.

Unions, rights groups and the children have accused the authorities of using disproportionate force -- a police stun grenade tore the hand off one teenager on Monday and another youngster had his teeth knocked out last week after police fired a grenade launcher at his head.

"I'm afraid for my future," Selma, 15, told AFP without giving her surname, among the thousands marching in the country's second largest city of Marseille.

The unrest has erupted with just months to go before the 2027 election to choose a successor to centrist President Emmanuel Macron, with far-right veteran candidate Marine Le Pen riding high in the polls despite a graft conviction.

"We just want to save our education and be educated," said Oceanne, 18, also at the protest in the southern port city.

She said she had suffered from absent teachers who were either not replaced or replaced by "pointless substitutes".

Another student held up a sign complaining of long hours at school.

"Timetables as packed as Le Pen's criminal record," it read, in a jab at the far-right presidential hopeful.

A major march was set to depart from central Paris in the early afternoon.

The interior ministry said 86,000 had already joined demonstrations across the rest of the country earlier Tuesday. The CGT union put that figure at 260,000 people.

- 'At war' -

In Rennes, in western France, teacher Romain Dubourg said he and other teachers were present outside the Chateaubriand high school to show support.

"With about thirty colleagues, we talked about the police brutality we've witnessed and decided to be there for our students if they need us," he told AFP.

While many protests have been peaceful, some demonstrators have started fires, destroyed bus shelters or clashed with riot police.

Police have responded with batons, tear gas and riot-control rounds.

The government says 215 students and 715 police officers have been injured since the start of the movement.

A 15-year-old lost a hand to a sting-ball grenade fired by riot officers in the northern town of Lens on Monday.

"It's scary," said Mike Ryan, 16, who decided against joining protests in Lens after seeing the images on social media.

"A hand cut off like that, it feels like we're at war," he told AFP.

The prosecutor's office in the northeastern town of Metz meanwhile said he called for a police inquiry over a possible sexual assault on a minor younger than 15, after video footage circulated of what appeared to be a plainclothes policeman groping a female pupil he had detained.

The government has sought to address the grievances, while accusing the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party of being behind the movement.

Veteran LFI presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon has strongly supported the protests, while calling for non-violent methods.

- Thousands of arrests -

The head of the CGT labour union Sophie Binet has said its members would be there to "protect high school students".

Greens leader Marine Tondelier has urged local officials and parents to wear white and "go and protect our children during demonstrations".

Amnesty International late Monday said the French authorities should "put an end to the disproportionate police repression seen in recent days during student protests".

"The images and testimonies widely circulated over the past week raise alarming concerns about the dangerous use of tear gas, batons and policing techniques by the police," Amnesty's Anne Savinel-Barras said.

The police have launched 10 internal investigations into allegations of brutality since the protests started, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said late Monday.

Since the start of the movement, 24 schools have been burned or ransacked, according to the education ministry.

More than 5,000 people, 87 percent of them minors, have been arrested.

Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu's office said 85 teaching staff have also been injured.

The government is also pushing legislation to make those responsible for damaging public property pay for repairs themselves, instead of using public funds.

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P.Ho--ThChM