France shuts hundreds of schools ahead of Tuesday's student demonstrations. Around 500 schools in France have been fully or partly closed ahead of larger student protests on Tuesday, Education Minister Edouard Geffray said. He said the closures were due to security conditions not being met. Geffray added that 24 schools had been "burned or ransacked" since protests began over overcrowded classes, heavy workloads, poor-quality learning materials and teacher shortages.