French education minister Jean-Michel Blanquer has announced plans to develop teaching in secondary schools of Latin and ancient Greek so that pupils will 'develop their culture'.
A damning report commissioned by an independent evaluation body has found that schools in France exacerbate rather than reduce inequalities in society. The report, compiled from the work of more than 30 experts from different disciplines, says that the French education system has been failing many pupils for decades. In particular it singles out the failure of what are called education priority areas, a policy pursued by politicians of both the Left and Right. These special zones have been stigmatised and turned into educational ghettoes, says the report, shunned by better-off families and used mostly by children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Faïza Zerouala reports.
When, during his presidential election campaign, François Hollande promised the creation of 60,000 jobs in the education sector, he was met with applause and criticism in equal measure. But now, implementation of the plan has met with an obstacle which few had foreseen; there are simply not enough candidates. It reflects a wider and enduring problem of a shortage of teaching staff that threatens to reach a crisis point in many schools, beginning in September. Lucie Delaporte reports.
