School protests, blockades resume in France despite PM’s promise to act

Protests have resumed at schools across France as high school students press on with demands for more education funding and better conditions, the day after the country’s prime minister ordered ministers to provide an action plan. Reporting from Paris, Al Jazeera’s Natacha Butler said university students and more trade unions have joined the nationwide protests and that a large rally is expected in the capital on Thursday. “They are moving around, trying to block off the streets,” Butler said from outside one school, where university students were barricading a large area. “They are out, they say, in solidarity with high school students because they say it’s important that as many young people join in the protests as possible,” she added.