The China Mail - France's high-school student woes in numbers

Students have blocked entrances to hundreds of lycees -- high schools for pupils aged 15 to 18 -- in recent weeks, with squads of riot police deployed, occasionally resulting in violent clashes.

Here are some key figures:

- Packed classrooms -

Some two million students -- most aged 15 to 18 -- are enrolled at around 3,700 high schools in France.

Across the country, class sizes in secondary schools, excluding vocational programmes, reached a record high in 2025, averaging 30.2 pupils, according to the education ministry.

France spends 24 percent more per pupil on upper secondary education than the OECD average, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development says.

But not all of it is funnelled into learning. Nearly a third of the education ministry's budget for 2027 is to go towards pensions, according to a government report on the draft plan.

- Absent teachers -

Half of France's secondary schools were missing at least one teacher as the school year started in September, according to a survey of more than 1,000 schools conducted by the Snes-FSU teacher union.

Around 7.5 percent of teaching hours in public secondary schools were not provided in 2024-2025 because absent teachers were not replaced, the education ministry says.

That is equivalent to 15.4 million hours of education.

The government has pledged to deploy 3,000 substitute teachers to the 114 worst-affected of the country's 3,700 lycees. As of Wednesday, 2,000 had been assigned, the education ministry said.

- Low teacher pay -

Upper secondary teachers in France last year on average earned the equivalent of $69,000 annually, bonuses and allowances included, according to the OECD.

That was several thousands of dollars below what their counterparts England and the United States get, and far less than German teachers at the same level who took home more than $114,000.

Only four percent of teachers in France agree that teaching is valued in society, the OECD said, far below the average of 22 percent for its 38 member countries.

But French teachers, many of whom say they are passionate about their job, do enjoy long vacation periods.

- Long school days -

These repeated half-term breaks and the long summer vacation mean French teachers have to squash their curriculum into 162 days per year, compared to 225 days in Germany for example, according to the OECD.

On top of this, a 2018 reform has allowed high school students to choose a wider variety of specialties in their final years of high school, which teachers say has resulted in a longer school day to accommodate everyone's wishes.

- Stark inequalities -

Only a quarter of students from low-income backgrounds go on to higher education in France, compared with nearly two thirds of pupils from privileged households, according to a 2023 government study.

Many students protesting in recent weeks have spoken of inequalities in the education system, especially between Paris and its poorer working-class suburbs.

Among them is the Seine-Saint-Denis area, where the poverty rate is around double the national average.

In 2018, a researcher told the French Senate that the best-funded middle school in Seine-Saint-Denis was less well funded than the worst-funded middle school in Paris.

- Crumbling buildings -

In 2024, a humorous video went viral on Tiktok, featuring students and teachers at one high school in Seine-Saint-Denis complaining of rundown facilities, including leaking ceilings and a lack of chairs.

It included a French literature teacher at the Lycee Blaise-Cendrars in the town of Sevran, who said she was not replaced for six months before key exams during her maternity leave.

The head of the Paris region, Valerie Pecresse, has said 6.6 billion euros ($7.4 billion) has "been spent on renovating secondary schools" since she took office in 2015.

- Arrests, violence-

The police have opened internal investigations into 36 allegations of brutality against demonstrators since the protest movement began last month, including four for "mutilating injuries".

Among them, a 15-year-old lost his hand last week when a police stun grenade exploded.

Some 200 high school students have been wounded, as have almost 900 law enforcement officers, the interior ministry says.

Around 7,950 people -- largely minors -- have been taken into police custody, according to the justice ministry.

G.Tsang--ThChM