ABSTRACT
Technical education developed partly in the complementary courses, and partly in the practical schools attached to industrial and commercial firms. For alongside the public national structure there exist the schools controlled by the Roman Catholic Church. The high prestige of certain schools, especially in Paris, and of engineering colleges, technical education still needs to struggle for respect, budgets and highly qualified teachers. At the head of each academy's system of education, acting both as Chancellor of the university and as the Minister's representative in that region is the recteur, whom the Minister has appointed. Each institute constitutes a unit of teaching and research within a reformed university structure. The statutory university alone grants degrees, and as the baccalaureat examination, success in which sets the seal on secondary school studies, is technically the first university degree, private lycees enter their pupils for the examination and teach the prescribed syllabus for each subject.
