1 Premier Edouard Balladur on Friday bowed to pressure from angry students, saying his conservative government was suspending plans to reorganize technical schools as students launched a new wave of demonstrations around France.
2 Thousands of students demonstrated in several cities against the plan. Up to 3,000 students gathered outside the governor's office in the southwest city of Nantes, where Balladur was visiting.
3 About 4,000 protested in Grenoble, 1,200 in Aix-en-Provence and several hundred in Dijon. In Paris, some 2,000 students met on the esplanade of the Invalides, housing Napoleon's tomb, for a march to the Pantheon, in the heart of the Latin Quarter.
4 Balladur said he was 'suspending' for review a circular put out in December reorganizing the network of university-level technical schools. The text, issued in December, would limit the possibility of IUT graduates from pursuing higher studies after their two-year program.
5 'The feeling spread that the freedom of choice risked being limited excessively,' the prime minister told reporters. 'That's why the circular was suspended.'
6 His announcement came at the end of a week of agitation in the nation's schools with discontented teachers and students taking to the streets.
7 On Tuesday, teachers, from nursery school through high school, went on strike to protest work conditions. Students from the University Institutes of Technology -- known as IUTs -- have held a series of protests, with regular university students often joining in, over plans to reorganize the schools.
8 The wave of protests could jar Balladur's standing as the leading candidate in spring presidential elections, or transform what has been mainly a contest with another conservative rival, Paris Mayor Jacques Chirac, into a more traditional contest between left and right. The two-round elections are set for April 23 and May 7.
9 The Socialists have traditionally had a strong standing within the teaching profession. Socialist candidate Lionel Jospin, a former education minister, was once a teacher himself.
10 Balladur is known to be averse to controversy and has marked himself in the past by backpedaling on government policy as soon as it became uncomfortable.
11 Feeling the squeeze, the government Wednesday said it was willing to modify another controversial text on the technical universities.
12 'Suspension doesn't mean abrogation,' said student leader Pouria Amirashi at the Paris march, referring to Balladur's announcement that he would suspend the text. 'It's a first step back by the government, but it is not yet victory for the students.'
13 The students vowed to maintain pressure. A day of national protests has been set for next Thursday.
14 The Ministry of Higher Education is trying to set up a round table next Tuesday with school directors and student groups. It maintains that changes have been misinterpreted and says it is prepared to make revisions.

" The feeling spread that the freedom of choice risked being limited excessively , " the prime minister told reporters . " That ' s why the circular was suspended . "
excessively , "
Why was freedom of choice being limited excessively?