Emmanuel Macron speaks to employees of the Argensol vocational high school during his visit to the establishment in Orange, in the south-east of France, on September 1, 2023. LUDOVIC MARIN / AFP
“We had not touched this sector for decades. And I think that, moreover, if it affected many more children of political, media or other officials, we would have done it much earlier, ”said the President of the Republic.
Emmanuel Macron estimated on Friday September 1 that the situation of professional high schools was “unacceptable“, but that there was “no fatality” has “keep the same number of dropouts“, during a visit to a vocational school in Orange (Vaucluse) for the pre-return of teachers.
“The situation is unacceptable, because it is at the bottom of the house arrest that I denounced six years ago, of a lot of injustice and family determinism“said the head of state.
A third of high school students in vocational establishments
“We know that we have many of our young people who are oriented in professional high school, not always by choice, but because they did not in fact succeed in college and that it is the fruit of a dropout which began Before“, he added, in front of teachers from the Argensol high school and local business leaders who hire young people from this high school. “We had not touched this sector for decades. And I think that moreover if it affected many more children of political, media or other leaders, we would have done it much earlier“, he launched.
The President presented in May the vocational high school reform in Saintes (Charente-Maritime), one of its campaign promises in 2022. The objective is to strengthen the attractiveness of these sectors, by giving access to more qualifying training, to improve the professional integration of young and to fight against dropping out of school, createcorporate offices» in high schools or pay high school students during their internship.
Emphasizing that “we still have many of our courses that either do not lead to a diploma or do not lead to a job”, with on average “40% of our young people who will have a job within six months of graduatingat baccalaureate level, the Head of State affirmed that in this new school year, “there is an unprecedented commitment of the nation for the sectors, the students you serve“. “There is no fatality in saying that in vocational high school, we should keep the same number of dropouts“, he continued. A third of high school students, or approximately 621,000 students, are educated in vocational high schools.