French students begin final exams unhindered by strikes

PARIS -- Most French high school students began their final exams Thursday unhindered by striking teachers who had threatened to cancel the tests, though students in some southern cities had to cross picket lines to get to school.

In Toulouse, riot police with helmets and shields stood guard at one school to push back protesting teachers. In Perpignan, demonstrators blocked a bridge with tires and boulders. In Avignon, striking educators chained themselves to a school gate.

Teachers have been striking sporadically for months over a pension reform proposal and a plan to decentralize the highly uniform national education system. Some transport workers have also stayed off the job to protest the plan, slowing train service and subways.

The transport strikes have eased in most places, including Paris. Commuters in few cities, such as Marseille in the south, still faced hassles. In Bordeaux, where garbage has piled up for 10 days, the mayor said Thursday he would hire private companies to clean up.

Transportation Minister Dominique Bussereau briefed the Senate Thursday on the cost of the strikes, saying that Air France had lost about $46.9 million in revenue since the beginning of this year. The government owns 54 percent of Air France.

Strikes had cost the national rail authority, SNCF, $305 million since the start of the year and were currently adding up to losses of roughly $23 million a day, Bussereau said.

Though teachers have continued their protests, they backed down from threats to boycott the all-important high school baccalaureate examinations after the government offered some concessions.

The exams test final-year students on their entire school career, and success is essential for entering a university.

The first exam Thursday was philosophy. Students had to answer questions including, "Is happiness a private affair?" and "Why are we sensitive to beauty?"

French President Jacques Chirac praised teachers for letting the exams start smoothly, though he condemned the few "isolated and unacceptable incidents." The president was visiting Toulouse, where about 12,000 workers protested pension reform.

The leader of one teachers' union, UNSA-Education, said that any teachers who tried to block the tests, known as the "bac," would give unions a bad name.

"The bac will not be undermined, nor diminished, it will be a completely normal year," Patrick Gonthier told France-2 television.

Not all the protests were disruptive. At one school in the northwest town of Pont-L'Abbe, teachers on strike handed out chocolate croissants to test-takers.

France's strikes had peaked Tuesday, as the center-right government began debate in Parliament on a plan to make workers put in more years on the job to qualify for full benefits.

The government says the plan is needed to compensate for France's growing number of retirees, and has warned that the pension system will collapse without the changes. Workers say the plan is the first step in a process that would eventually destroy the pension system.