Education provisions in support of allophone students in France: policies, achievements and challenges

Abstract

Since 1970, French education authorities have put in place education provisions to address the education needs of the Elèves Nouvellement Arrivés en France (ENAF) [Students Newly Arrived in France]. They put in place a series of such and a range of policy frameworks (circulars and decrees) to legitimise the education provisions implemented in French schools. Despite considerable achievements, these were criticised for not adequately addressing the social and cultural needs of the allophone students. In 2012, the Unité Pédagogique pour les élevés Allophones Arrivants [Pedagogic Unit for newly arrived allophone students] – a centralised body – was created to streamline the multiple education provisions and introduce flexible classes in addition to the traditional ‘fixed’ education provisions offered to the allophone students. All these education provisions created since 1970 focus on providing French language to the allophone students so that they can transition into French mainstream education.

Keywords:

• Allophone students
• decree
• circular
• education provisions
• Classes d’Initiation [Initiation classes]
• Classes d’Adaptation [Adaptation Classes]
• Classes d’acceuil [Welcome Classes]
• Unité Pédagogique [Pedagogic Unit]

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Please note that all translations are from French to English and by the authors.

2. In France, students who arrived in French schools with little or no knowledge of French have been designated in a number of ways, including Élèves Nouvellement Arrivés en France (ENAF), Élèves allophones [allophone students], Enfants étrangers [Foreign children], Enfants non-français [non-French children], Nouveaux arrivants [Newly arrived], just to name, but the most frequently used designations. For the sake clarity and consistency, we use allophone students is used in this article to designate non-French speaking students in these French programmes.

3. Circular No IX 70-37 of 13 January 1970.

4. Circular No 73-383 of 25 September 1973.

5. Decree No 77–822 of 13 July 1977.

6. Circular No 86-119 of 13 March 1986.

7. www.media.education.gouv.fr.

8. DOM Départements d’Outre Mer [French Overseas Departments].

9. CLIN stands for Classes d’ Initiation [Initiation Classes] and CLA for Classes d’Acceuil [Welcome Classes].