Lycée Français du Caire

Lycée Français du Caire (LFC) is a French preparatory, primary, and secondary school in Cairo.[1]

The school's main language of instruction is French, while Arabic and English are taught in the primary, Spanish or German are taught in later years (preparatory). It is located in Maadi, just outside Cairo's borders, and is considered as a private school in Egypt, but has the status of French public school for France. Mainly gives priority to French students but Egyptian children as well as other foreigners are accepted after analysis of their family situation. The French authorities are planning to move middle (preparatory) and high school to a new site near the Hyper market Carrefour, in Maadi's suburbs. This site should open in 2012, in the most optimistic alternative and allow to accommodate more students.

The school has over 1600 students, and programs are derived from the French educational system. About 50% of the students are French, 35% are Egyptian and 15% come from other countries. Classes go generally from 7:45am to 4:35pm. The school is also a place where students can pass the French high school test Baccalauréat, most of the time with the LFC seniors and some students from other cities or CNED students. The diploma is recognized as a French one, and is given by the Academy of Lyon. The Brevet des collèges exam, is also a French test LFC students must pass. The school educates from Kindergarten to the last year of high school. Thought it has only three general channels, the Scientific one, the Social and Economic one, and the Literary one.

Organization

LFC's laboratories

Structure

There are three primary campuses, with one each in Maadi, New Cairo City, and Zamalek. The secondary classes are held in a campus in El Merag.[2]

Sports Facilities

The school has a gymnasium with Boxing and Acrobatic gymnastics equipment, a football field, a volleyball/basketball one, a handball/basketball one, and also some Table Tennis tables. Buses allow to go to a close Olympic Stadium, where there's swimming, Javelin throw, and track and field teachings.

CDI

The CDI (Centre de Documentation et d'Information), is the school library that consists of 13991 documents, which 11594 are books and 2345 are periodicals. Each can be borrowed for 2 weeks. 8 computers are also free to use for the students.

Classrooms

LFC's classrooms

There's approximately 50 classrooms in the school, on two levels. 43 of them are classic classrooms, numbered from 1 to 43. The ones from 1 to 19 and 32 to 43 are on the ground floor, and the others are on the first floor.
The seven other classrooms are 2 informatics classes, one amphitheatre, and 4 laboratories. Each class is composed of 20 to 30 students, which is the average capacity of every classroom.

The Polyvalent Room

The Polyvalent Room is approximately a 23-meter-large, 29-meter-long room. Used principally to host students with no classes and students doing detention time. But it's also used for exams, meetings, elections, speeches and announcements, it has a theatre scene, and therefore is used by the theatre club.

Students Well-being

The School has also an infirmary, and a cafeteria. Two bus companies ensures the school trips. And security is provided by guards into the school grounds, and by armed policemen at the school's front and back door.

The School's History

March 2011 Protests

Students protesting, holding up signs demanding the return of their math teacher

During the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, the headmaster Mr. Roesch had called for a meeting to discuss the closing of the school until February 27th. During the meeting, which over 200 teachers, parents and students attended, only the headmaster was allowed to use a microphone. Unable to speak during the meeting, a math teacher stood up and tries to grab the microphone from the headmaster's hands, who resisted and kept the microphone. Considering the conditions and the incredible amount of stress associated with this crucial moment of Egyptian history, and the fact that the very purpose of a meeting is to enable communication, this act is quite natural.

However, ignoring the teacher's apologies, the headmaster filed a complaint for "assault", claiming he had to "muster all of his strength to fight back and take the microphone the teacher had unrightfully snatched from his hands", resulting in the indefitnite suspension of the said math teacher. When the school reopened on February 28th, the students, particularly the Seniors, heard the news, and, as they all had just witnessed the power of protests to fight injustice, the students decided they would stage protests on the school's football field, not going to class until the unjust punishment was revoked. A group of seniors along with a few juniors, began to write a petition to be sent to the director of the AEFE, condemning the irresponsibility and incapabilities of the headmaster during this crisis and the unjust suspension of the teacher, which was signed by over 600 students (out of a rough 800). Two other petitions were also sent, one signed by the parents, and another by the teachers.

The situation escalated, and as the school was paralyzed and could not function because of the students' protests, the vice-president of the AEFE travelled from Paris to Cairo to tend to the situation and hear what the students, parents and teachers had to say. Finally, after a week of protests, the teacher's unjust suspension was lifted, and the headmaster, Mr. Bernard Roesch, was ultimately fired for his incompetence and inability to control the situation, at the satisfaction of the entire school's community.

References

  1. ↑ Home page. Lycée Français du Caire. Retrieved on 18 January 2015. "Division Cité El Meerag, 2ème Megawra / Le Caire - ÉGYPTE"
  2. ↑ "L'administration du lycée." Lycée Français du Caire. Retrieved on 23 January 2015. "El Merag Site secondaire Terrain n°5 Division Cité El Meerag 2ème Megawra " and "Maadi Site primaire 7, rue 12" and "Zamalek Site primaire 8, rue Ibn Zanki" and "Nouveau Caire Site primaire Locaux Ecole Concordia El Tagamoa El Khames El Banafseg 1 New Cairo City"

External links

Coordinates: 29°57′09″N 31°16′08″E / 29.95250°N 31.26889°E