Preparing French young people for the challenges of the future

  • In the 21st century, young people without access to effective, high-quality instruction and practice of languages and multiculturalism suffer from a de facto lack of equal opportunity.
  • Ideally, International Sections require the presence of many non-French students in class, and thus from pre-school don, young French students benefit from exposure to other languages and cultural diversity.
  • In this manner, children are accustomed from a young age to speaking two languages and practicing mutually beneficial multiculturalism on a daily basis. Values such as tolerance and respect for others can thus be developed.
  • This can help, starting in school, to fight effectively against the formation of separate minority groups in the community.
  • The excellence of the International Sections system and the OIB are demonstrated each year by the high number of students who are admitted into the best French Grandes Ecoles (Polytechnique, ESCP-EAP, HEC, etc.) or foreign Universities (Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Stanford, etc.).
  • Having a school with International Sections in a region draws families who want their children to be educated in such a school. However, since the number of places is limited, some families must send their children to schools without International Sections putting very real pressure on them to provide high quality language teaching. This can lead to an   improvement in language instruction in other schools in that region for the benefit of all. /span>
  • A school with International Sections also attracts high quality non-French teachers to a region; in the absence of International Sections they would go to teach in other regions or other countries. It is important to meet this challenge in the « war for talent ».
  • The intrinsic value of the education provided in International Sections heightens a young person’s employability employability and his/her international mobility.