“The Greco-Latin heritage is more useful than ever”, proclaimed Jean-Michel Blanquer last january in Point*. Monday, November 15, the Minister of National Education once again shows his desire to strengthen the learning of Latin and ancient Greek, in an interview * with the same weekly. “I am convinced that we must both offer the learning of ancient languages to more students and strengthen the links between this teaching and other disciplines to show its richness and contributions”, argues the minister before a European Day of Languages and Cultures of Antiquity Tuesday in Paris.
Optional education will in particular be open to high school students in the technological path at the next school year. “Pupils who choose this path will thus be able to develop their culture”, argues the Minister of National Education, “but also, by the discovery of ancient languages, to better appropriate their specialties, whose technical vocabulary, in health, in engineering, is very largely of ancient origin”.
Jean-Michel Blanquer also wants to develop “optional teaching of French and ancient culture in the sixth grade, which is very popular with the pupils”, and the installation “before the end of calendar year 2021” a Higher Council for Languages, whose mission will be “to reflect on the possibilities of improving the learning of languages, ancient, living, foreign and regional, by working specifically on their ‘points of contact'”.
The minister also said he wanted to open “Mare nostrum” sections at the start of the next school year, which will allow “to promote and improve the learning of Mediterranean languages, whether ancient, foreign or regional”, making it possible for a student to“jointly learn Latin, Italian and Occitan in an interdisciplinary dynamic”.
He adds that missions will be directly “installed[s] in each academy at the start of the next school year “. Placed under the authority of the rectors, they will “to follow the teaching conditions, guarantee their quality and their continuity from middle school to high school”. In addition, the minister will publish a joint statement on Tuesday with the Italian, Cypriot and Greek ministers responsible for education, “aimed at strengthening European cooperation around Latin and ancient Greek”.
* Articles reserved for subscribers