Despite the special conditions, the French-Armenian Kevork Arabian school in Valence welcomed its first students, for a historic start.
It consists of two sections of kindergarten with eight children enrolled.
The school will keep expanding, a higher level will open every year until September 2026.
As the Covid-19 health crisis caused a delay in the construction of the school, the Board of Directors decided, in June, to move temporarily to the Georges Markarian artistic center, to welcome students to good conditions.
“However, an administrative contingency beyond our control did not allow us to begin our return to school there. This cannot be done until October 15,” the Board said.
Despite this, the students were nonetheless welcomed temporarily at the private school Sainte Thérèse in Bourg-Lès-Valence until November.
It is the first everyday Armenians school to open in the diaspora for years.
When construction works are completed, the premises will accommodate a school group consisting of a kindergarten, a primary school, and rooms dedicated to the cultural center.
The AGEFAV (Management Association of the Future School), founding group of this school, has the mission of ensuring a good administrative and pedagogical management of the school.
AGEFAV aims to offer a high quality school (kindergarten and primary school) providing an excellent education. To make this happen, the pedagogical team will adapt the teaching methodology to the psychology of each pupil, taking into consideration their social and cognitive development.
The educational and pedagogical project of this school will be based on six key principles:
- Development of pupils’ sense of belonging through the learning of Armenian language, culture and history.
- Compliance with the French National Education program to ensure all basics are acquired before going on to secondary school.
- Training pupils to learn English with the goal to achieve an elementary level as fluent as the Armenian language.
- Promotion of extracurricular activities (initiation to computers, chess, theater …), essential to personal development and make them grow.
- Initiation of pupils to Christian education through pastoral activities.
- Pupils awareness to environmental and societal issues, to prepare them for the challenges of the future.
