France: inclination to mobilize for school by age 2022

In a column published in the newspaper Le Monde at the beginning of September 2022, some left-wing deputies expressed their concern about the situation of the school, which, according to them, contravenes the commitments of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). Interviewed at the same time, nearly one French person in ten was willing to take to the streets to demonstrate over the current state of the school system. This inclination to mobilize was much higher among younger people. Indeed, the proportion of French people aged between 18 and 24 stating that they were ready to demonstrate was 4.5 times higher than that of people aged over 65, and twice as high as the national average.

Concerns among the French population

The education system ranks among the most worrying issues according to the population, and the level of concern has even increased over the past few months. While most French people feel that the early childhood education system is working quite well, or even very well, more than a third considered that the primary education system was functioning poorly in 2022, and nearly three out of five felt the same way about middle and high schools. When surveyed shortly before the start of the school year, they also seemed rather pessimistic about the perspectives for improvement in the French education system: for about 70 percent of them, the quality of education was worsening in secondary schools, and more than half held the same opinion about elementary schools.

A crisis of the school system?

Of the approximately 717,800 public sector teaching positions in France in 2021, resignations represent only a small portion, but their gradual increase over the past several years send a negative signal. In the 2012-2013 school year, 491 teachers chose to leave the French education system permanently. In 2020-2021, there were 2,978, over six times more. Moreover, according to the Ministry's figures, out of the 27,332 positions opened in 2022, only 19,838 had been filled in the public sector, and 3,482 in the private sector. It thus seems that articles 28 and 29 of the UNCRC, devoted to the right to education and personal development of children, are not applied, insofar as the lack of teachers and AESH (accompanying persons for students with disabilities) does not allow children to benefit from this right.
In addition, this teacher shortage implies that the number of students per class is high. Indeed, despite its progress in reducing class sizes in schools, France is still behind other OECD countries. In 2019, a French public elementary school teacher had an average of about 18 students per class, compared to about ten in Norway, between 12 and 13 in Belgium and Spain, with the OECD average at 14.5.

Addressing the deterioration of the education system

Among the measures that could improve the performance of the education system, improving teacher training and evaluation is perceived as a priority by the population. In addition, a large proportion of those surveyed before the start of the 2022 school year, and particularly sympathizers of left-wing parties, consider that it is urgent to recruit more teachers. Yet, while there is no single explanation for the recruitment crisis, which is multifactorial, the issue of salary is central. A Senate report published at the end of 2021 estimates that, in constant euros, i.e. after taking into account the impact of inflation, French teachers have lost between 15 and 25 percent of their salary over the past two decades. Their salary level is also among the lowest of the OECD countries: in 2019, a French elementary school teacher had a starting salary of 31,300 U.S. dollars per year, placing France far behind other European countries like Luxembourg (70,295 U.S. dollars), Germany (63,257 U.S. dollars), or Spain (42,215 U.S. dollars). Increasing teachers' salaries would thus be one of the measures that could make the profession more attractive.