Agrégation des Lettres Classiques

The Agrégation de Lettres Classiques (Classics) and its peer, the Agrégation de Grammaire, are higher-level French competitive examinations held to recruit, in principle, senior secondary school teachers – though many of its laureates are in fact university teachers, whether lecturers or professors.

The Agrégation examination is national in scope and is thus not tied to any particular university or institution. Laureates, called agrégés (in this case, agrégés de Lettres Classiques or agrégés de Grammaire), become civil servants, like other teachers within the Ministère de l'Éducation nationale. Being an agrégé is a de facto condition for doctors who want to get tenure as university lecturers (maîtres de conférence).

Each year, there is a definite number of positions offered for each discipline separately, on a nationwide level, with slight variation from year to year. In 2013, for example, Lettres Classiques had 75 posts, while Grammaire had 10.

These examinations require great mastery of Latin, Ancient Greek, and French (including Medieval French). Every year, a set of about 14 book-length classical texts is assigned as the program to be studied in particular (see example below for year 2012-2013).

Upon its creation in 1766, the Agrégation included “Grammaire” and “Belles Lettres” amongst its sections, along with “Philosophie”.

Until 1946, the competition remained a purely Classical examination. The Grammaire competition was a mixture mainly of Classics, but also of studies in historical linguistics and Indo-European reconstruction. A proportion of medieval and modern French literature was then added (slightly greater in Lettres Classiques than in Grammaire) making it virtually impossible for outsiders to succeed in the competition. The opening of these competitions to European citizens has had insignificant practical outcome.

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