In Carhaix, the Polynesian Minister of Education immersed in Diwan

The Minister of Education of Polynesia, visiting Carhaix this Thursday, November 16, 2023, visited the school and then the Diwan high school where he was welcomed by the principal Grégory Moigne. Ronny Teriipaia came to observe immersive teaching in the Breton language in order to draw inspiration from it overseas. The politician is, in fact, responsible for leading the project to create immersive Polynesian schools. A project which aims to promote the learning of Tahitian and other Polynesian languages ​​and whose implementation, for the minister, “necessarily involves teacher training”.

“Teaching children is essential because parents hardly speak the Tahitian language anymore. The objective of my Ministry is to make it compulsory from kindergarten to final year,” explains Ronny Teriipaia. And immersive teaching seems “obvious” to him. “The Diwan model allows us to project ourselves. Breton and the Tahitian language have the same status. These are regional languages ​​which therefore undergo the same treatment. We have common goals.”

After discussing with the high school students of Diwan, the minister draws another parallel between Polynesian languages ​​and Breton. “The Breton language is widely used inside the school but not outside. It’s exactly the same thing in Polynesia. But among these young people there is a desire to preserve culture and language,” underlines Ronny Teriipaia.

Christian Troadec does not say anything else. “The Breton language is today a threatened language. We must save her at all costs. This is the objective of the Breton language reappropriation plan undertaken by the Region, so that it is taught in schools and spoken in a social environment by as many people as possible. This is real in-depth work that is being carried out,” underlines the mayor of Carhaix, also vice-president of the regional council, responsible for the languages ​​of Brittany.

For the latter, a “voluntary, ambitious policy” can help save the language. And Christian Troadec cites the example of Carhaix. “Census after census, we see that the number of speakers does not decrease thanks to the bilingual sections created in all education sectors (public, private, Diwan)”.