Baku-APA. Hundreds of university lecturers, students and researchers in France have protested over a lack of funding for the country’s higher education system, APA reports quoting Press TV.
The protesters marched through the capital of Paris, voicing their anger at the failing state of the country’s universities, job insecurity and low quality teaching, the digital news publisher, TheLocal.fr, reported on Friday.
The demonstrators held banners, chanted slogans and set off firecrackers, stressing that the country’s higher education is in a “profound crisis.”
The anger of the university professionals was triggered by the education budget amendments for 2015, which will reduce education funds by 136 million euros, including 70 million in the higher education budget.
Mattheiu Bauhain, of the Communist student union, told the news publisher, “Our facilities are in a terrible state, certain rooms don’t have heating during the winter months and there aren’t enough lecturers. We’re here to show our anger about this.”
In addition, one protester, Charlotte Leduc, said demonstrators are angered by the lack of job security in academia, noting “even with a Ph.D. it’s not guaranteed you will find employment.”
France, Europe’s second-biggest economy, is grappling with political and economic crises, which are seen as the worst since President Francois Hollande took power in May 2012.
Hollande’s government plans to cut the country’s budget by 21 billion euros (27 billion dollars) next year and another 50 billion euros (64 billion dollars) by 2017.
France’s austerity measures have put its citizens under more financial pressure than ever. Sales and retirement taxes have been raised, while massive cuts to social services have forced households to dip into their own pocket to cover for the government’s absence.
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