CERN lends a hand to Collège de Prévessin

In 1973, the French government, in collaboration with CERN, created the Lycée International in Ferney-Voltaire: a public high school that would take in the children of international staff. Linguistic and cultural enrichment was one of the objectives behind the school, bringing French children together with children of other mother tongues in the same classroom.

The Lycée has various international sections, known as national programmes, offering education in a number of languages. The Collège and Lycée received official international status in 1978, and since then the French Ministry of Education has assumed responsiblity for the school. To complement Collège and Lycée education, on Tuesday afternoons since 1975 pupils in Pays-de-Gex primary schools have been exempt from class so that they can follow education in their mother tongue (Dutch, English, German, Italian, Spanish or Swedish) at the Collège/Lycée.

Since then, the Collège/Lycée International has continued to grow and is now reaching the limits of its capacity. Although a new Collège/Lycée will open in St. Genis in 2016, the Collège/Lycée International cannot currently host all pupils taking their Tuesday afternoon mother-tongue classes. For example, the German section has been split into two classes since 2010, posing problems for pupil transport as well as for efficient teaching.

On the initiative of Mrs. Conreaux, head teacher at the Collège de Prévessin, and thanks to the support of CERN, the German section was able to refurbish two unused language laboratories at the Collège so that all 106 pupils of the German section could be accommodated in a single location that allows for future growth!

Thank you CERN.

APEG, Association pour la promotion
de l'enseignement germanophone au Pays de Gex