For the past year, the city of Paris and the National Education Department have been carrying out an unprecedented experiment in the reception areas of Boulogne and Vincennes: bringing the school directly to the sites where Travelers reside. Report.
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“I come every day the teachers are there. I really enjoy going to school. I would really like to learn to read and write, for my future. “ From the threshold of his trailer, 11-year-old Angel describes “his school” and “his teachers” with enthusiasm. For a year, the boy has, two days a week, a classroom a few meters from his home, in the reception area for Travelers in Vincennes.
- Angel : “I come every day when the teachers are there, I really like going to school. “ ©Guy Pichard
- The classroom in the Bois de Vincennes reception area, created in 2017. © Guy Pichard
If the decor looks like one of a school like any other, the school program is here adapted to the specific needs of the pupils. Often out of school, the children of the community come instead to learn reading and writing. The teaching team also wishes to instill in them educational benchmarks in order to give them a taste for school and direct them towards a traditional school establishment.
- ©Guy Pichard
- For the traditional greeting card, each child had the choice between different wishes to be classified according to his will. Abraham chose the school! © Guy Pichard
- ©Guy Pichard
Age groups follow one another throughout the day
“In one year here, I rediscovered what it was like to have children who want to learn, and yet I have been doing this job for 20 years”, testifies Violaine, one of the teachers stationed in this school. A ceaseless ballet of children flock to the classroom windows or knock on the door to ask when it will be their turn to “go to school”. In the classroom, three groups follow one another between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., classified by age, from 6 to 12 years old, the smallest being the first.
- Violaine, teacher: “We focus on reading, the alphabet and themes like the four seasons. “ ©Guy Pichard
“We focus on reading, the alphabet and simple themes like the four seasons. It’s frustrating to have each child only four hours a week, but that’s it already ”, says Violaine. Throughout the day, the two teachers do not take in more than six children at the same time. “These are children who have had little or no access to school before, who have not learned to listen, to concentrate … This is the greatest difficulty with which we are confronted”, adds the teacher.
- ©Guy Pichard
- A song to learn to count. © Guy Pichard
- ©Guy Pichard
Located near the racetrack – and with the regional police training center as one and only neighbor – the Bois de Vincennes reception area opened in 2017. It has around one hundred inhabitants for a space of approximately 5000 m². The population density is important. “Too few in France, the reception areas are officially intended for passing travelers. The reality is that they are mostly inhabited by family groups. They are nevertheless attached to the caravan and to this special relationship with the outside world ”, explains Sivan, referent for families at the Association for Access to Rights and Promotion of Gypsies and Travelers (Adept).
An experiment that awaits a continuation
Access to law, access to health, support for parenthood, education … Adept works on all these subjects. For the school experiment, it worked hand in hand with the Paris town hall and the National Education. “In the past, there have been mobilizations to encourage families to come to town hall to enroll their children in school. But unfortunately the little ones only went to school for a few days, details Anna Carrizo, head of the social center for Adept at the two Parisian reception areas of Vincennes and Boulogne. It is this failure that led the public authorities to launch this experiment. “ The flight from schools of students from traveling communities has several reasons: low basic education level, which can be explained by school irregularity caused by homelessness, discrimination, distance in transport, etc.
- ©Guy Pichard
- Difficult to teach phonetics with a mask … but like in any school, the sanitary protocol is applied. © Guy Pichard
- ©Guy Pichard
Most of the families that make up the Vincennes and Boulogne groups have been living in Île-de-France for several generations. Some are of Spanish or Italian nationality, most of them French. They speak Romance, with Italian, Spanish and French of course. In the classroom, Romance is prohibited to favor the learning of French and the understanding of teachers, with all the same time for discussion reserved for children to teach them a few words and expressions.
- Sophie, teacher: “Our goal is also to teach French to children, so that they can manage at school afterwards”. ©Guy Pichard
Children sometimes speak to each other in their own language, but are quickly picked up … “Our goal is also to teach French to children so that they can manage at school., specifies Sophie, the other teacher. As adolescents have already almost entered working life, we are focusing on the youngest to give them a taste for school. “ Violaine wonders about her relationship to the specific culture of the community: “I ask myself a lot of questions about their living conditions, what are the solutions to their problems … and how can we not inculcate faults in our culture and respect theirs? “
- Anna, from Adept: “The kids are overjoyed. “ ©Guy Pichard
“The kids are overjoyed to go to school. The families are also happy and want more. The operation is a success! “ enthuses Anna Carrizo of Adept. However, there remains a major challenge to be taken up: if the experiment is intended as a springboard towards schooling in a traditional school, what can be the next step to encourage parents to enroll their children in school and the little ones to go there permanently? ? “The risk is that parents are not aware that this is not the real school here, and the objective of the National Education and the city of Paris is to educate children elsewhere, worries Anna Carrizo. This class is designed as a gateway. “
Guy Pichard
Photos : © Guy Pichard
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