France, Oct. 5 -- France high school students protested or disrupted lessons at 413 of the country's 3,700 secondary schools on Monday, the education ministry said, down from the number of schools affected last week.

The ministry, which had reported 564 schools were affected at around midday on Friday last week, said the drop was due to "sustained dialogue with high school students".

The shutdown comes after France's Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu sent a list of suggestions to several of his top ministers aimed at solving the stand-off.

In his letter, Lecornu called for the priority handling of long-term absences and unfilled positions. He also proposed using artificial intelligence to create school timetables.

The review outlining ...