France promises 3,000 extra teachers in first step to calm student protests

The French government has made its first sign of giving ground to teenage protesters, with a promise of 3,000 extra supply teachers in the coming days. Education minister Edouard Geffray made the offer in a television interview on Thursday evening, at the end of another day of sometimes violent demonstrations by high-school students. The government says 6,877 people have been arrested, 86% of whom are under the age of 18, since protests began centred around demands for more resources in secondary education. In what unions have billed as Act Four of the three-week movement, some 71,000 people staged protests across the country on Thursday, with 24,000 gathering at the Bastille in Paris.