High school students have again blockaded schools and marched through cities across France, promising to continue their campaign against the poor state of the national education system in the tenth day of protests that have left hundreds injured.

Large crowds took to the streets on Thursday for mainly peaceful demonstrations in cities including Lille, Rennes, Nantes, Lyon, Toulon and Marseille, while in Paris a large procession marched through the city centre to the Place de la Bastille.

An estimated 25,000 students thronged the square in the east of the capital, with some climbing the monument at its centre, which commemorates France’s 1830 July revolution, while waving the tricolour flag and singing the Marseillaise.

As the evening drew in, riot police fired teargas and crowd-dispersal rounds and carried out repeated baton charges to clear the protesters, some of whom hurled bottles, paving stones and other projectiles at the heavily armoured squads.

Eliane, 16, a pupil on the Paris march, said she had come to “defend and encourage high schools in an even worse state than mine”, calling the march “magnificent”. She said she planned to continue protesting until concrete progress was achieved.

The education minister, Édouard Geffray, told TF1 television on Thursday night that 3,000 substitute teachers would be deployed to about 100 high schools identified as having particularly acute teacher shortages “between tomorrow and Tuesday”.

Geffray said he would also authorise the recruitment of “several hundred” new teachers. The prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, said on social media that the government would propose amendments to the 2027 budget to “translate certain of the high school students’ demands into concrete measures”.

Students earlier said the government’s reaction was not sufficient. Ryad Rani, the president of one high school students’ union, said the protesters had heard “no concrete measures whatsoever, no response to our demands”. The movement “will continue”, he said.

Sabrine Kharbach, from another students’ association, said the protest, over teacher shortages, long school hours and dilapidated buildings, would last “for as long as €10bn hasn’t been put on the table”, the amount students and some leftwing politicians have said needs to be urgently invested in France’s schools.

According to an Elabe poll ​for BFM TV, 72% of French people think the students’ demands are legitimate but 55% of them think the protests should stop. Unions called for another national day of action in support of the students next Tuesday.

The education ministry said fewer high schools had been forced to close than in recent days, with 224 shut on Thursday morning and 157 by lunchtime, meaning that about 95% of the country’s high schools were at least partly open.

But more than 71,000 protesters took to the streets on Thursday, the interior ministry said. The demonstrations, backed by many teachers, parents and unions, involved further clashes with police around some school barricades in Paris. In Rennes riot officers used water cannon to disperse protesters.

A prominent complaint on student banners and placards was the heavy-handed police response to the wave of protests. “Too young to be listened ​to, but old enough to be teargassed,” read one banner on the Paris march.

Over the past two weeks, some demonstrators have set dustbins on fire outside their schools, destroyed bus shelters and hurled projectiles at riot police, who have responded using batons, teargas and riot-control rounds.

At least 215 teenagers, 89 school staff and 761 police officers have been injured since the start of the protests, which were triggered by chronic teacher shortages, crowded classes, dilapidated buildings and long school days.

The government on Wednesday suspended the use of stun grenades by police after a teenager’s hand was blown off, while saying it was “excessive” to speak of “police repression” and denying that officers had “orders to confront” the young protesters.

The protests have rocked a government caught between popular demands for investment in deteriorating public services and pressure from markets to reduce France’s ballooning budget deficit and debt mountain, among the highest in the EU.

The economy minister, Roland Lescure, said this week there was room to address demands for more school resources in the 2027 budget. In the current draft, schools have the second-largest funding increase after defence, with a 1.4% hike to €90.9bn.

Six months away from a crucial presidential election to replace Emmanuel Macron, politicians are jockeying to exploit the protests, with the far-right frontrunner, Marine Le Pen, highlighting the damage to schools and calling for parents ⁠to foot repair bills.

Her hard-left opponent, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, has praised the protesters ​as “incredible” and denounced police brutality.