AFTER only a few days in Jamaica, a group of French trainee teachers in the island as part of an exchange programme with Shortwood Teachers’ College agreed that Jamaican students appear to be more advanced than their French counterparts.

The group arrived in the island from Montpellier in the south of France on February 19. They each spent most of the first week of their visit doing teacher observations at Immaculate, Mona, and Stella Maris preparatory schools, as well as Ardenne High.

Among the things they noted were the high level of competition in the local system, the close relationship between teachers and their students here and the large class sizes compared to those in their home country.

Sebastien Barry, a Math teacher in training, has been placed at Ardenne. He shared some of his early observations with Career & Education.

“The relationship between teachers and students is closer than in France. Students hug teachers (for example). Also, their level seems to be good,” he said.

“I agree with Sebastien that their levels are higher,” added the sole female in the group, Maud Teisserenc, who has been placed at Immaculate. “I think the students are more clever than the French because they are more happy to be in school. I get the impression that they are happy to be in school. I think they work more here. French students are often in a bad mood so here, it’s a pleasure to teach/observe.”

What Baptiste Foulquie, who has been with grade three students at Stella Maris, has noticed is the high level of competition that exists.

“There is a lot of competition here. You have houses for example. If you want the class to be silent, have a competition in silence. We don’t do this in France. We hardly reward kids. We give them their grades and that’s it. But the sticker system is good. I will do it when I go back (because) it’s effective.

They all said the students displayed a high level of interest not just in them but the French language as well. Some of the expressions and words they wanted to learn were “good morning”, “good evening”, “good-bye”, “I love you” and “I hate you”.

Despite the high points, however, Gregory Bouet said he suspects it’s difficult to teach in Jamaica because the grade two students he had at Mona were “very active”. “They have too much energy, they move up and down,” he said.

That, says Foulquie, is a result of the lack of enough break times.

“There is no break for three hours so the kids have to move. In France, we have a one-hour class then a 15-minute break. If the French kids had no break they would move too.

The trainees are from the teacher’s college in the university town of Montpellier, the Institut Universitaire de Formation des Maitres. They have completed the three-year programme, have successfully done the qualifying exams and are currently in their year of practice, which gives the option of travel. They have come to Jamaica to return the visit of eight second-year Shortwood students last October.

The programme was spearheaded by French lecturer at Shortwood, Rusheyne Ferguson, in partnership with Linguistic Attaché at the embassy of France, Nathalie-Zoe Fabert.

“(Before I came), I knew nothing about Jamaica other than reggae, Bob Marley, Rasta Rocket (the French title of Cool Runnings), and Usain Bolt. I came to compare the education system with France,” said Teisserenc.

Bouet and Barry — who said they are big fans of reggae, and who list Sizzla and Luciano among their favourite artistes — said they came to discover not just the education system but the country as well.

As for Foulquie, who said he had to assure his friends he wasn’t crazy and that he wasn’t going to get killed by coming here, said his reason was to identify with Black students in French schools who are often the only ones in entire schools.

“Like in every country, there are places you shouldn’t go and you shouldn’t go alone… (but) I wanted to experience what it is to be the only one who is different, the only one who is not of the same colour. How do I understand the Black kid in my school if I don’t understand what it is to be different?” he said.

At a reception at the embassy on February 24, French ambassador to Jamaica Marc-Olivier Gendry expressed gratitude to the schools and families which are hosting the French young people. He also praised the fund-raising efforts on which the Shortwood students embarked last year.

“I hope this will be a long-lasting co-operation between the IUFM de Montpellier and Shortwood… I hope it will be (replicated) by other institutions in France and Jamaica,” the ambassador said.