By Salman Siddiqui/Staff Reporter
The fact that the number of Qatari students enrolled at French schools in Doha has been increasing year by year is evident at Lycee Voltaire.
“Our Qatari student numbers are close to 400,” Principal Jean-Pierre Debaere told Gulf Times.
This is a “considerable number” given that the total number of students at Lycee Voltaire’s two schools in West Bay and Al Waab are about 1,000.
“Already our two campuses are absolutely full now and because of the huge demand, we urgently need a new campus,” he said.
HE Ali bin Fetais al-Marri, chairman of Lycee Voltaire’s board of directors, who is also Qatar’s attorney general, had told Gulf Times on Tuesday that a new French school would be opened in Doha next year.
The principal revealed that apart from the 400 Qatari students, the school has “little less than 200 French, 110 Lebanese, 90 Egyptian, 70 Tunisian and 35 Algerian students.”
“We have a rich Francophone and Qatari mix of children in our schools. If you compare our schools with the other French school in Qatar, they have 1,300 students out of which less than 20 are Qatari students.”
About the increase in the number of Qatari enrolments at his schools, the principal said that firstly, the French schools in Qatar was a well thought-out and planned “political project” between France and Qatar that had long term goals.
A few years ago, Qatar officially joined the International Organisation of La Francophonie.
Also, he said that some Qatari families think that it was fashionable to send their kids to French schools.
“It seems that many Qatari families are interested in this French trend. It seems to be fashionable or something like that for them these days.
“(But) we have to convince such Qatari families that while it is okay to think that it’s fashionable to have your child study at a French school, but they must realise also that when their kid joins the school, actually the entire Qatari family joins with the child.”
He explained that the Arabic speaking Qatari child requires constant support and help from the family, especially since learning in a foreign language environment was “an enormous challenge.”
Although the school was inaugurated in 2008, the principal was very pleased that some of the Qatari students had performed “quite well.”
He said the staff gives special attention to Qatari students at his schools, where Arabic was mandatory for all students as a native language or foreign language; teaching of Islamic religion is mandatory for Qatari students and optional for other Muslim students; while history of Qatar lessons was mandatory for everybody.
Meanwhile, the visiting French Minister Helene Conway-Mouret wrapped up her visit to Qatar and left yesterday.
Principal Jean-Pierre Debaere with French Minister Helene Conway-Mouret and HE Ali bin Fetais al-Marri, chairman of Lycee Voltaire’s board of director
