Divan schools
Diwan ( Breton [ 'diwɑ̃n ]: "Keim") is a Breton association founded in 1977 with the purpose of creating opportunities for the establishment of Breton-language schools outside the centralized French school system .
description
By the time the association was founded, the transmission of Breton in most families had already ceased, so that the opportunity to learn the language in school seemed to many to be the only chance to prevent Breton from soon becoming extinct . Within the state education system, the minority languages of France ( langues régionales ) were neglected and taught a maximum of one hour per week as an optional subject.
Diwan's approach is completely different: Breton is not taught as a foreign language, but is used as the language of instruction and the language of all social activities as well as school administration. In sociolinguistic terms: the language should be given domains in which it and not French is used outside of a pure language course. Since the number of native Breton speakers and thus the possibility of using them in everyday life outside of school is drastically decreasing, the Divan schools present themselves as islands within an almost entirely French-speaking society.
One of the basic principles of the association and also its main problem is that it is free of charge: social selection should be avoided at all costs, and parents may (and should) donate as much as they can, but no school fees are charged.
history
The first divan school was founded in Lampaul-Ploudalmézeau in 1977 .
The first Diwan high school opened in Le Relecq-Kerhuon (near Brest ) in 1994 . It was moved to Carhaix-Plouguer in 1999.
The attempt to integrate it into the state school system, which was undertaken by the then Minister of Culture Lang , failed for the last time in 2001 due to various political objections that, with reference to Article 2 of the French Constitution (“The language of the Republic is French”), no other teaching languages in French schools want to allow.
In the 2003/04 school year, 2,761 pupils attended classes run by Diwan. In 2004 a divan school was founded in Paris, which now has around 50 students. In the school year 2010/11 3,528 students will be taught. There are 41 schools, 6 secondary schools and one high school.
In 1998, the project Witaj ( Sorbian for welcome ) was founded in Lusatia , based on the model of the Divan Schools , which is dedicated to bilingual Sorbian-German education based on the same principle.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Michael B. Kline, Nancy C. Mellersk: Issues in the French-speaking world , Westport: Greenwood 2004, p. 78 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
- ↑ Diwan Paris double ses effectifs pour la deuxième année consécutive ( Memento of the original of January 26, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Divan. 5% de croissance des effectifs cette rentrée
- ↑ Divan en chiffres
