Opening ceremony in Nam Thanh Cong

Still Supervisor,

as in Can Tho, but in charge of part of the primary schools (and not all subjects at all levels in all schools) : a more "in deep" job, a far more regular follow-up than what we are used to in the provinces.

We are 4 supervisors in Hanoi for the primary level, and as for me I work with 6 of the city's 12 bilingual primary schools (24 classes) and one middle school in the Ha Tay province (6 classes).

The 4th graders have written :

Nous sommes les élèves de la 4ème F de l'école primaire Nguyen Tri Phuong.  Notre école se trouve dans la rue Quan Thanh à Hanoi, près d'un très joli lac.  Elle a été fondée en 1998, et elle porte le nom d'un héros vietnamien pendant la guerre contre les colonialistes français.  Elle est petite mais très belle avec 15 salles de classe, c'est un petit bâtiment de trois étages.  Dans notre école, il y a seulement 14 classes, avec plus de 600 élèves et 25 maîtres.  Dans les trois classes bilingues, nous travaillons toute la journée à l'école.  Nous aimons notre belle école, avec une grande cour pour les récréation, un petit jardin et beaucoup d'affiches et de jolis dessins sur les murs.

Ecole primaire Nguyen Tri Phuong

Ecole primaire Trung Vuong

The 4th graders have written :

Notre école Trung Vuong se trouve dans la rue Quang Trung, près d'un petit lac. Elle a la forme d'un U et elle n'est pas très grande, mais assez jolie avec beaucoup d'arbres.  On a une grande cour pour s'amuser.  Nos quatre classes de francais sont au 2e étage et on a bien décoré ces classes avec des dessins et de belles histoires en francais.  Notre activité préférée est de jouer des saynètes.  Et vous savez, à Noël passé, on a invité les élèves de notre école à participer une joyeuse fête avec des classes de francais et c'était très amusant.  On a aussi reçu des cadeaux du Père Noël.  On considère cette école comme notre 2e maison parce que l'on y a de bons amis, avec de gentils professeurs.

The 5th graders have written :

Bonjour mes amis !

Comme vous, nous parlons le français, nous sommes élèves dans une classe bilingue.  Notre école s'appelle Van Yen parce qu'elle se situe sur une terrasse de la commune Van Yen.  Elle est assez grande avec beaucoup d'arbres, une grande bibliothèque et 25 classes, dont 7 classes bilingues.

Notre professeur de français s'appelle Lan, elle parle bien le français.  Nous sommes 27 élèves et nous aimons tous bien le français.  Nous sommes très contents de notre école et de notre classe.

Ecole primaire Van Yen A

Good level

Francophones en action ...

It rapidly appeared to me, without having a vision, that the level of Hanoi's classes is sensibly higher than that of Can Tho's.  And the contrary would have been surprising, since the teachers of the capital have always had much more help than those of the provinces !

The tremendous amount of work done for years by supervisors can be felt here, as well as the fact that the students have more contacts with foreigners, speaking other languages.

Let's also mention other important facilities, like Documentation and Resource Centers, the French Alliance, numerous bookshops, etc.

Thus our work is eased

in Hanoi, but far from being useless.  The intensive follow-up shows results, and the continuous formation (by summer workshops and weekly pedagogical meetings) brings knowledge, know-how but also a permanent support to the teachers.

This year particularly, since there was no workshop centered on the "Une Petite Grenouille" method that we thought acquired, I noted that the new teachers were experiencing enormous difficulties in their classes.  I then proposed a complementary quick training in three parts : more intensive help to these teachers by their supervisors, observation with them of experienced teachers in their classes, weekly half-days workshops in small group with me (two months).

A pedagogical meeting

End of Middle School certificate

Consecration

Consecration

of the program on Thursday, November 18th 1999 : after years of work, a certificate (diploma, actually) ends the bilingual cursus in Vietnam.  As Mr. Michel Guillou, Rector of the Association of French-speaking Universities said, it is not only a graduate diploma for Vietnam : it's a passport to all French-speaking universities around the world.

As a matter of fact, out of the 43 students who got last year out of 12th grade (first graduation), all passed in Vietnamese, 36 also graduated in French, 15 of them got scholarships and are in French universities, and the others in Vietnamese universities.

End of High School certificate

Shared success

With the principal actors of the program : the teachers who invest themselves in, sometimes disrupting their teaching methods to make their lessons more living ; and with the Vietnamese students in the bilingual classes, who sometimes work twice as much as their other classes' colleagues !

Ah, if I could have had the advantage of such a program when I was a kid...

But let's not fall asleep over the first achievements : this program is wonderful, but still does not work flawlessly !

Up to work !

French with the 5 senses !

Part of the staff, including Fabienne Lallement (Chief of project of the bilingual classes worldwide), with Mr. Le Vu Hung, Vice-Minister of Education.

First assessment

of the first 5 years of the program, at the Ministry of Education and Formation in Hanoi, 25th and 26th January 2000.  Besides officials from the Vietnamese Ministry, were present diplomatic representatives, representatives from the Laos and Cambodia Education Ministries, representatives from all Provincial Education Services, principals from the 110 Vietnamese schools with bilingual classes, and part of our APEFE-CEQ-AUF staff.  About 250 guests in all !

Noted problems and possible solutions were stated to continue improving this program in Vietnam, but also in the other countries.