AEFE

Agency for French Education in foreign countries (Agence pour l’Enseignement Français à l’Étranger)

Cre­at­ed in 1990, the Agency for French Edu­ca­tion in for­eign coun­tries (AEFE) is a nation­al pub­lic body under the author­i­ty of the Min­istry of Europe and For­eign Affairs. ETak­ing into account the capac­i­ty of the estab­lish­ments, it car­ries out pub­lic ser­vice mis­sions relat­ing to edu­ca­tion for French chil­dren liv­ing out­side France and con­tributes to the pro­mo­tion of the French lan­guage and cul­ture as well as strength­en­ing rela­tions between French and oth­er edu­ca­tion­al sys­tems. The main objec­tive of the AEFE is to serve and pro­mote a school net­work that is unique in the world, con­sist­ing of 600 estab­lish­ments in 138 countries.

A unique worldwide network

600 schools, mid­dle schools and high schools estab­lished out­side France, in 138 coun­tries, offer an edu­ca­tion in line with the require­ments of the French nation­al edu­ca­tion pro­grammes. These accred­it­ed schools pro­mote human­ist val­ues such as tol­er­ance, equal­i­ty between boys and girls, equal oppor­tu­ni­ties, intel­lec­tu­al curios­i­ty and the pro­mo­tion of crit­i­cal think­ing. — and offer a seam­less edu­ca­tion from kinder­garten to the high school diplo­ma (bac­calau­réat). As part of a dynam­ic, attrac­tive and open inter­na­tion­al net­work, they offer a par­tic­u­lar­ly enrich­ing education.

Success for all

Suc­cess for all is a stat­ed ambi­tion in all schools with­in the net­work, which have an excel­lent bac­calau­réat pass rate (96.7% on aver­age, 100% in many schools), high­er than that of any oth­er lycée in France. Most of the net­work’s grad­u­ates go on to study at the Grandes Ecoles and the best inter­na­tion­al universities.

Sharing

As places for lin­guis­tic and cul­tur­al dia­logue and shar­ing, based on strong val­ues, the schools edu­cate young peo­ple from all back­grounds. Pilot lan­guage teach­ing makes it pos­si­ble to inte­grate nation­al pupils through spe­cif­ic teach­ing of French, to teach the lan­guage of the host coun­try to all pupils and to pro­mote the use of Eng­lish and oth­er inter­na­tion­al lan­guages in a mul­ti­cul­tur­al context.

Influence

By wel­com­ing chil­dren from host coun­tries and third-coun­try nation­als among its pupils, who make up almost 70% of its stu­dent body, the net­work con­tributes to the out­reach of the French lan­guage and cul­ture. By cul­ti­vat­ing inter­cul­tur­al com­mu­ni­ca­tion and under­stand­ing, it forges last­ing affini­ties between these stu­dents and France.

Key figures

  • More than 398,000 pupils, of whom 70% are non-French and 30% are French
  • 600 insti­tu­tions in 138 countries
  • Around 17,000 high-school grad­u­ates each year
  • More than 6,500 per­ma­nent nation­al edu­ca­tion staff and thou­sands of local­ly recruit­ed staff

Directly managed schools (EGD)

The EGDs are decen­tralised depart­ments of the AEFE. They are pro­vid­ed with a sec­ondary autho­ris­ing offi­cer, the Head­mistress, and a sec­ondary accoun­tant, the Admin­is­tra­tive and Finan­cial Direc­tor. They are com­po­nents of the pub­lic enti­ty and their bud­gets are con­sol­i­dat­ed each year with the AEFE’s bud­get. The Agency grants them sub­si­dies and pays the per­ma­nent staff who work there. Le Lycée Français de Vienne est fier de faire par­tie des 68 EGD étab­lis dans le monde.

www.aefe.fr

Vien­na Edu­ca­tion Directorate→