A new website will be launched on Tuesday that gives French people of all ages and all language levels the chance to improve their English.

"/> A new website will be launched on Tuesday that gives French people of all ages and all language levels the chance to improve their English.

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EDUCATION

French encouraged to improve English skills

A new website will be launched on Tuesday that gives French people of all ages and all language levels the chance to improve their English.

Published: 7 February 2012 09:13 CET
French encouraged to improve English skills
englishbyyourself.fr, screenshot

Education minister Luc Chatel launched the site at the same time as he proposed new ways to improveOh l language teaching in France.

Named “English By Yourself” the site will adapt content to the level of the user, making it suitable for everyone from beginners to experts.

The site features materials ranging from an animated cartoon called “Où est Tinnie?” to a clip from the latest Daniel Craig hit movie Millennium, based on the books by Swedish author Stieg Larsson.

“The objective is immersion in spoken English,” said Serge Bergamelli, the director general of the distance-learning institute CNED (Centre National d’Enseignement à Distance).

He said there would be “different resources, audio, video, articles so that people can practice the language regularly.”

“Whether you need English for business, to work in tourism or for your own trip, the videos and resources on offer will change,” he added.

The site has been set up in partnership with the British Council and mobile phone operator Orange.

A 2006 Eurobarometer report found that 51 percent of French people questioned were confident about being able to have a conversation in a language other than French. This was better than countries including Spain, the UK and Ireland but worse than 18 of their European Union neighbours. 

The same survey found that 38 percent of French people felt confident about having a conversation in English with Spanish and German the next most popular languages. 

Education minister Luc Chatel also announced the findings of a survey he commissioned on language teaching in France on Tuesday.

The report recommends that languages should be taught from primary school and more provision should be made for students to spend time studying in other countries.

 

 


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EDUCATION

Sweden’s Social Democrats call for ban on new free schools

Sweden's opposition Social Democrats have called for a total ban on the establishment of new profit-making free schools, in a sign the party may be toughening its policies on profit-making in the welfare sector.

Published: 18 April 2024 16:09 CEST
Sweden's Social Democrats call for ban on new free schools

“We want the state to slam on the emergency brakes and bring in a ban on establishing [new schools],” the party’s leader, Magdalena Andersson, said at a press conference.

“We think the Swedish people should be making the decisions on the Swedish school system, and not big school corporations whose main driver is making a profit.” 

Almost a fifth of pupils in Sweden attend one of the country’s 3,900 primary and secondary “free schools”, first introduced in the country in the early 1990s. 

Even though three quarters of the schools are run by private companies on a for-profit basis, they are 100 percent state funded, with schools given money for each pupil. 

This system has come in for criticism in recent years, with profit-making schools blamed for increasing segregation, contributing to declining educational standards and for grade inflation. 

In the run-up to the 2022 election, Andersson called for a ban on the companies being able to distribute profits to their owners in the form of dividends, calling for all profits to be reinvested in the school system.  

READ ALSO: Sweden’s pioneering for-profit ‘free schools’ under fire 

Andersson said that the new ban on establishing free schools could be achieved by extending a law banning the establishment of religious free schools, brought in while they were in power, to cover all free schools. 

“It’s possible to use that legislation as a base and so develop this new law quite rapidly,” Andersson said, adding that this law would be the first step along the way to a total ban on profit-making schools in Sweden. 

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