France’s government has promised about 3,000 extra teachers to calm a third week of student protests, but student unions vow to keep marching. Education Minister Edouard Geffray pledged late on October 8 to send fully qualified teachers who have not yet started work to fill staffing gaps, one of the protesters’ main grievances.

The measure takes effect immediately and will cost “several dozen million euros”, Geffray told broadcaster TF1. Around 141 schools remained shut on October 9. Students have blocked hundreds of high schools, complaining of absent teachers, overloaded timetables and dilapidated classrooms.

“I find it crazy we need to block hundreds of high schools just to get a vacancy plan,” Marius Mesnil of a high school student union told Franceinfo radio. Police cleared a blockade at Assas university, France’s top law school, in Paris on Friday morning. Mines Paris was also disrupted, and the Institut Catholique switched to remote classes.

Student unions have called another round of nationwide school strikes for next Tuesday. Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu has pledged “concrete, quick and fully funded responses” by late October.

The unrest tests a new government six months before a presidential election in which Emmanuel Macron cannot seek a third term.