: French students teaching English to children at a Malayalam-medium government school does not, at first, seem like an exercise that could work. But 17 students of the Ecole Active Bilingue Jeannine Manuel School managed to pull it off in the course of an afternoon.
These high school students from Paris took over the teaching responsibility at three government schools – Lower Primary School (LPS) Korani, Manalakam LPS, and Pattathil LPS in the outskirts of the city on Tuesday.
The French students are here as part of an exchange programme with the Trivandrum International School (TRINS). A major part of their visit is to take part in the social service activities that their host school carries out. Every week, class 11 students of TRINS take classes in communicative English at government schools in and around Korani. This week, it was the French students who took charge as they taught children from kindergarten to class 5.
In addition to teaching them English rhymes and playing games with them, the students also donated the proceeds collected during a Food Fair organised by the students to the headmistresses of the three government schools. They also donated sweets and stationery items to every child. Accompanying the 17 French students, are two staff members from their school, Barry D. Souza and Fabienne Bouloc.
During their week-long stay, they attended regular classes with their counterparts in TRINS.
