Agnès van Zanten

And time this coincided with a teacher shortage.

Agnes Van Zanten is a professor at the National Centre for Scientific Research.

The teaching profession is less and less attractive, so the government has not really made a strong effort to make the profession attractive, either by raising salaries or in other ways.

While the government plans to spend around one point nine billion dollars more for education in next year's budget, the Secondary School Students Union demands more than fifteen billion now.

There are overcrowded classes, and at the same time, this coincided with a teacher shortage.

Agnes Van Zanten is a professor at the National Center for Scientific Research, specializing in social inequality.

And this has to do with, uh, the fact that the teaching profession is less and less attractive, so the government has not really made a strong effort to make the profession attractive, either by raising salaries or in other ways as well.

On average, there are between 25 and 30 students per class in France's high schools, which is more than the European average, and in some schools, the figure is considerably higher.

"We have 3,000 substitute teachers who are currently not teaching," he says, adding, "We've had trouble assigning them to schools." He says those teachers will be placed in schools that need them by next Tuesday.

It's very disappointing first because people think, "Well, if we had all these substitute teachers, why weren't they, uh, on the field doing something?"

Agnes Van Zanten again.

And at the same time, well, it's just 3,000, uh, substitute teachers, uh, which is not very much.

And so they, they feel that their future in higher education is compromised.

Agnès Van Zanten is a senior research professor at the National Center for Scientific Research.

French public high schools have fewer teachers today than two decades ago, even though they serve a quarter of a million more students.

And frequently, uh, these teacher shortages, frequently when they are short, they are not, uh, there are substitute teachers at all.