DepEd to continue teaching French in select public schools in 2013

MANILA, Philippines — French language will be taught to more public high school students in 2013 after the successful instruction of French as a language elective in select schools in the past three years.

The Department of Education and the Embassy of France on Thursday renewed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) that would extend for four years French instruction in select public high schools.

“We need to expand this program… Every Filipino student must learn a second foreign language aside from English,” Education Secretary Armin Luistro said during the MOA signing held at the French embassy in Makati City.

French Ambassador Gilles Garachon said in renewing the MOA, they would work on improving the quality of teaching French and improve exchanges between Filipinos and French nationals.

He said they also wanted to help the students being taught French to eventually study in France.

At present, French is taught by 19 trained teachers in 13 public high schools in the National Capital Region and Region VII.

Around 1,500 students are taught French as an elective.

Some of the participating schools offer the elective to third and fourth year students, while some offer the elective as early as first year of high school.

Under the new MOA, French will be taught at the National School of Digos in Davao Del Sur in 2013.

An additional 12 teachers will undergo training on teaching French.

“We’re very impressed with the quality of French instruction in secondary schools,” said the French embassy’s cultural counselor Christian Merer.

Foreign languages were first taught in public high schools in 2009, beginning with Spanish, Japanese and French. German and Chinese languages were later added.