A high school teacher in France is set to face trial after setting fire to his students' English exam papers to protest against the education system in the country. The teacher has been identified as Victor Immordino by local news outlets. He set 63 test papers on fire outside a Paris vocational school on Tuesday, according to news agency AFP. This comes months after a dance teacher was fired from an elite French university for insisting on calling dance students "men" and "women," as opposed to using non-gendered language.
The French prosecutor's office and board of education said Mr Immordino, 29, risks 10 years in jail and a $160,000 fine.
"It was visual. My aim was to start a public debate," the teacher told broadcaster BFMTV on Thursday.
"I saw the exams. They were catastrophic... They will be given another opportunity to sit again," he added.
The prosecutor's office said the teacher had been suspended and banned from approaching the school until his trial on October 27.
"In three years, I've seen that there's no point in what we do, especially in English class," Mr Immordino said as he burned the test papers.
"We see students who have spent seven years in this system and can't even string two words together," the 29-year-old added.
The board of education said the school was now drawing up a new test for the students whose results were incinerated.
In December 2022, ballroom dance teacher, identified by her first name Valerie, was reprimanded by the Sciences Po University in Paris for insisting on using "men" and 'women" for her students. The university told AFP that officials had called a meeting with Valerie over her use of "discriminatory" language.
"I say women on one side and men on the other because in dance there is a role for the man and a role for the woman," she told the news agency.
"That's the reason that we separated," Valerie added.
The teacher said she quit her job over the university's demands to use the words "leader" and "follower".
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