In German it is Abibac a true binational diploma

Two hundred students are their back to school this week at the international school of Manosque, near the center of Cadarache, where the international thermonuclear reactor Iter will be built. The establishment is temporarily hosted in a high school in the city until the end of the work of the final premises which will open in September 2009, with an investment of 55 million euros of the Paca region. This school was part of the package proposed by the France to host the reactor which will mobilise EUR 10 billion over 30 years financed by 32 countries (1) on its soil. "The commitment to build the facility, ranging from kindergarten to high school with lessons that can be delivered in 10 different languages, and half is provided by France, has been an important factor in the decision to locate Iter at Cadarache," said Jean-Paul de Gaudemar, Rector of the Academy of Aix-Marseille.

The existence of international education becomes an element of inescapable attractiveness for companies as for their foreign executives. It is to respond to this type of applications that the France has implemented the first international sections in public schools in the 1980s. About 25 of education is provided in foreign languages with thirteen languages now possible (2) and, at the end of the lycée, students spend the BA International option (BOI). In German, it is Abibac, a true bi-national diploma.

Dual system

The device is from elementary to high school, with a wide variety of regional organizations. Some institutions are exclusively dedicated to the international, while others mix the functions of school sector and the existence of foreign sections. Some have also been created to address a very specific application, such as the collège and lycée Ferney-Voltaire, in the Jura, to accommodate children employees of CERN (European Organization for nuclear research).

"From the outset, the system was designed with free education, through the partnerships signed with other States which provide language teachers", says Jean-Pierre Attal, responsible for mission on the international delegation to international relations and cooperation (DRIC) of the Ministry of National Education. Programmes are established in consultation with the educational authorities of these countries. But the rule has exceptions, including the English, yet the most requested language. "In the United States and Britain, is not the State which manages the educational system." "It was so impossible to pass an agreement from State to State," continued Jean-Pierre Attal. Therefore, it took solutions with results surprising financial consequences. Some institutions provide free international schooling, teachers being holders of mother tongue Education English. Others offer an English section or pay us, teachers are recruited by specific associations, duly authorised by the rectorat. What are families or sometimes companies who pay this cost, variant in the case of 1,400 to security euros for a year. A decree published in 2006 has formalized the existence of the dual system, considered the only possible to meet a very high demand without increasing budget for National Education.

The number of international sections in France is growing regularly. There were 234 last year, including the quarter in English, and twelve new opening to this receipt in Chinese language. But for businesses, it often remains very insufficient. Thus, in the town of Aix-Marseille, officials of the human resources of large international groups fear that the means assigned to the school of Iter does make more difficult the increase in existing capacity, considered very insufficient. "We often foreign executives who refuse a transfer to the seat of Marignane or who come without children, or place in international education", insists Bertrand Coutier, Vice President HR of Eurocopter, international mobility, which ensures that his group would be ready to give a boost to increase the available places.

"Sous-calibrée" offer

"We also fear that the Iter employees, who often prefer to settle around Aix, trustent places of the rare existing sections", notes Andrew James, responsible for resources human international in the CMA CGM shipowner. Before the creation of the school of Iter, located 40 kilometres of Aix and 100 km from Marseille, a single public College in the Academy of Aix-Marseille had an international section of English with a capacity of 30 students by level of education. Similarly, a single high school proposed suite of this teaching, with 100 spaces per level in French and twenty in German. Each year, 400 candidates attempt the entrance English examination to enter in second but foreigners also the French who have lived abroad or who have a very good level in the language. The two facilities are in Aix, and the regional capital, Marseille, offers no international public instruction in English. "Our international offer is sous-calibrée," acknowledges the Rector, who is willing to consider solutions with companies and evokes a lycée international project that could be built, one day, on the site of EuroMediterranean Marseille..