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The Collège Calvin, formerly the Collège de Genève, is the oldest public secondary school in Geneva. It was founded in 1559 by John Calvin.
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On February 24, 1428, the Conseil Général of Geneva decided to establish a college in Rive (a neighborhood of Geneva), near the Franciscan convent. In it was taught the liberal arts and university studies, which Genevan people had previously had to go abroad to study. After the Protestant Reformation, school was made obligatory and free for poor people on May 21, 1536. A new college was founded, this time in the Franciscan convent.[1]
It wasn't until the May 29, 1559, after the Leges Academiae Genevensis (Order of Collège de Genève) that work began on the actual building of a new official Collège de Genève and Université de Genève. This building would eventually house the Collège de Genève alone. The original edifice is now part of a complex, with a wing added in the Renaissance, another wing and building in the 19th century, and a final building 1987. The Collège de Genève was renamed the Collège Calvin in 1969.[2]
The Collège Calvin is one of the Postobligatory Secondary Education Schools in Geneva, specifically under the Formation Gymnasiale collèges. Students who want to pursue an education past the (obligatory) Cycle d'Orientation enter the four-year college from 15-19.[3]