"Well-off families pay for study periods abroad, well I'm offering them to everyone right here," Darcos announced on the television channel TF1.
French governments generally consider protecting the French language to be a national priority. But in a break from this traditional stance, the education minister described failure to speak English fluently as a "handicap" in today's world.
French students currently receive 700 hours of compulsory English education over the course of their school careers. But France "is not seeing an adequate return on this investment," Darcos conceded. Expanding on the proposals, he expressed his desire for all French students to be bilingual by the time they finish compulsory education, stressing in particular the need to be able to speak excellent English.
To this end, the minister intends to introduce free English classes for a week during the February holiday and two weeks during the summer holidays, he explained. Funded by the state, these would primarily focus on oral skills. Similarly, "supported" English lessons would be made available after school hours during term-time, he told TF1.
The announcement was immediately criticised by French unions. "The education minister is increasingly becoming the 'extra-curricular' minister," said Roland Hubert of SNES-FSU, according to press reports. He should instead concentrate on the school curriculum, the co-secretary general of France's largest teachers union continued.
The announcement comes shortly after a report from European business leaders warned that EU industry is at risk of losing competitiveness as other countries start outperfoming the bloc in terms of language skills (EurActiv 14/07/08). It also precedes the imminent publication of a European Commission communication entitled 'Multilingualism: An asset for Europe, a shared commitment,' set to be unveiled on 17 September.
Despite the EU executive's lack of formal competence on education, the document will encourage Europeans to learn at least two foreign languages. Specifically, it will urge EU citizens to learn a second foreign language for reasons of personal interest and development alongside one used primarily for professional life (EurActiv 19/02/08).
