France Relents, Will Modify Education Plan

The French government decided today to modify its plans to reform higher education, but it refused to bow to student demands that the reform be scrapped altogether.

The decision came one day after a demonstration by 200,000 students against the government’s bill escalated into a bloody clash. (Story on Page 13.)

It was not known immediately what the modifications would be.

Denis Baudouin, a spokesman for Conservative Premier Jacques Chirac, said Education Minister Rene Monory will outline in a “governmental declaration” moves “toward modification of the three points that trigger anxiety among students.”

To Be Unveiled Next Week

Le Monde newspaper reported earlier in the day that a modified version of the bill, authored by Alain Devaquet, deputy minister for research and higher education, will be unveiled next week.

Several thousand striking students marched through central Paris this afternoon.

The bill is aimed at giving greater autonomy to universities to make them more competitive by encouraging outside financing, allowing universities to offer their own diplomas and to “orient” students toward a course of study. The bill would also double the $60 registration fee.

Students say the reform would make higher education elitist by allowing universities to select their students, forcing them into areas of study against their will and making the state diploma obsolete.

Coalition Leaders Meet

Chirac met this morning with key ministers and leaders of the parties in the ruling coalition.

Jean Lecanuet, president of the center-right Union for French Democracy, which controls the Parliament along with Chirac’s neo-Gaullist Rally for the Republic, said: “The government refuses to withdraw purely and simply the bill under the pressure from the street.

“But I note also that, under that same pressure, the bill will be unburdened of the contents which provoked the mobilization of youth against it.”

Officials said today that about 160 people were injured, at least two seriously, in Thursday’s clash between police and students.

Twelve students, including one who lost a hand and another who lost an eye, remained hospitalized today, authorities said. Four police officers also remained hospitalized.