STAGE BELC : A TRUE BELC THAT CAME TO INDIA
Stage BELC. The name
itself is enough for all the teachers of French all over the world to guess
what this article is all about. However, this year BELC was different.
86 teachers of French from India and other countries of South
Asia found themselves under one cool roof from 25th May 2015 to 29th May 2015 in the
sweltering heat of Delhi. The CIEP ( Centre
International d’Études Pédagogiques), a famous centre for a multitude of
training programmes with its headquarters based at Sèvres near Paris, joined
hands with IFI (Institut Français en Inde) and IGNOU (
Indira Gandhi National Open University) to organise the first ever South Asia
Regional French Teachers Training program in the lush green premises of the IGNOU. Alliance Française de
Bombaysupported the event.
Training session with L. E. Bordier and C. Legris
The stage BELC is an annual event organised by the CIEP for one
month in summers and 15 days in winters in France. However since 2012, the CIEP
decided to bring the stage BELC to different regions in the world to enable
more and more teachers to develop and enhance their pedagogical techniques.
The opening ceremony was presided over by the Vice-Chancellor of
IGNOU, Mr. Nageshwar Rao, the Director of IFI M. François Vandeville, and M.
Pierre-Yves Roux from the CIEP, amongst other dignitaries from the IGNOU. “ In
a country as diverse as India, teaching French as a foreign language brings its
own challenges” says Mr. Gillon, Attaché
for Cooperation in Education sector , French Embassy .The modules offered
during the training programmes had been carefully chosen keeping in mind that
French is being taught in India at the secondary school level, at the
university level .
The module which the teacher of Arwachin did were:
A4 : Enriching class
using online resources. (15 hours)
B4: Creating online
resources. (15 hours)
A reception was hosted on the second day in the beautiful lawns
of the Institut Français en Inde where his Excellency, Ambassador Richier too
addressed the trainees. Also present were other dignitaries from the IFI and IGNOU.
Mr. Pierre-Yves Roux, a very experienced trainer from the CIEP was happy to
note the professionalism of the participants and claimed this training to be a success. Laurent Elisio Bordier, Joint Director of
Alliance Française de Bombay sums it up as “ un vrai BELC- a true BELC”
Extremely satisfied and well equipped with a bag full of
pedagogical tools, we left for our respective cities and countries with hopes
to re-live another Stage BELC next year, in Delhi or in another city in India.
The training session
ended too soon!.A whatsapp group is already up and running where all the
teachers exchange regularly their teaching practices and share useful
information in teaching French in India.