Thousands of teachers across France have taken to the streets in a one-day protest against education job cuts under President Nicolas Sarkozy's new economic plan.

The Education Ministry says more than one-in-four public primary school teachers and around one-in-five high school teachers failed to report for classes Tuesday. Some private school teachers also joined the strike.

Since 2007, tens of thousands of teaching jobs have been cut in France, and an additional 14,000 are set to disappear in 2012.

The teacher cutbacks are part of President Sarkozy's plan to cut public sector jobs to help shrink France's budget deficit.

But teachers say the quality of education is suffering as class sizes increase and affect their ability to provide an educated work force.