French lycée blockades: thousands of lost class hours worry students

Imagine turning up at school every morning and finding the gates blocked. For some French lycée pupils, that has been daily life since the autumn, and the lost hours are starting to add up.

What happened?

Since the start of the school year, blockades have shut down or disrupted a number of lycées (French upper secondary schools). At the Lycée Maurice Ravel in Paris, the blockade has been almost permanent since early October. Classes are cancelled or moved online.

According to the Education Ministry, pupils in schools blocked for a month have lost 10% of the year's class hours on average. Parents at one constantly paralysed Paris school did their own sums and got 15%, or 138 hours.

The ministry said 24 lycées were completely blocked on Thursday 12 November.

Why are families worried?

Opinions among pupils are split. One girl says she studies fine at home. A Terminale (final-year) pupil says they are falling behind but think the protest must continue.

Quentin, a Première (penultimate-year) pupil who wants to study medicine, sees it differently. He has had only a few grades since September and can't make up for a bad start. "There is a disadvantage that will follow us for Parcoursup," he says. Parcoursup is the platform that decides university places in France.

Some parents are thinking about having their child repeat the year, or moving to a private school. One father says that goes against his values, because he believes in public schools, and that he feels it is unfair that "a minority blocks without democracy".

Can the lost time be recovered?

Help is appearing. University students from the association Cours-circuit.fr offer free catch-up lessons to Terminale pupils. Amine Nasri, a Terminale pupil, notes that some schools have missed no specialty-subject classes despite blockades, while his has missed several. That can create a gap.

The ministry has offered voluntary catch-up classes during the February and Easter holidays. Raphaëlle Marx, a social sciences teacher, says that won't be enough. Recovering two or three weeks of lost lessons in one week would be "a lie", she says.

Pupils have announced new mobilisations for next Tuesday.