As the new school year is officially set to begin on 11th September this year, some exciting new systems are being implemented in Monaco’s learning establishments.
The Principality’s General Commissioner in Charge of the Department of National Education, Youth and Sports (DENJS), Isabelle Bonnal, headed up a press conference on 5th September at the Lycée Rainier III and laid out what is to come this academic year.
The first change will be the actual school year and will affect everyone. The 2023-24 academic year will run from 11th September to 28th June, commencing a week later than previous years. Schools will close for four vacation periods and 10 bank holidays.
ASSESSMENTS FOR CE2
Next up is for kids in CE2. After a test programme carried out in two schools last year, the government has decided to implement national assessments at the end of CE2 and the deployment of mock examns in CE1 to prepare them.
As Bonnal explained, “This is an in-depth change in the vision that families, pupils and teachers may have of assessment, which does not reduce the child solely to the mark obtained but which is to help in understanding all the skills acquired or in progress that are one’s own.”
HIGH SCHOOLS
Just like in France, Monaco has opted to teach an hour and half of maths per week to high school students who are not taking mathematics as a core subject.
Additionally, higher accounting courses will now be available at the Ecole Rainer III rather than at Ecole Albert I.
First year high school students registered in the international section of school will now be following what is to be called the International French Baccalaureate system, and Albert I will offer physics and chemistry in English to students who wish to study them.
Physical Education, Sports Practices and Culture (EPPCS) has been added to options for high schoolers, with the minister calling it a way to “enable the acquisition of transversal skills such as self-confidence or stress management and the ability to address the many professional sectors of sport and sports practice.”
ONLINE AND ADMIN
School websites have all been revamped to be more “modern, with a more pleasant design, optimised navigation, harmonised content, easier searches, and important information more easily identifiable”.
Scholarship application deadlines have also been extended to the last Friday in September. Canteen allowance requests can be submitted until 15th November.
TRIBUTE TO PRINCE RAINIER III
This year, Monaco will continue to mark the centenery of the birth of Prince Rainier III in its education system.
On 1st July 2023, the Lycée Technique et Hôtelier de Monaco, founded by Prince Rainier III, became Lycée Rainier III.
Meanwhile, in tribute to the “visionary Prince”, funds collected during the 2023-2024 school year for the International Day of Children’s Rights will be entirely dedicated to the Preventorium of Madagascar and the sustainability of its operation, an institution founded by Prince Rainier III.
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Photo credit: Stéphane Dana, Government Communication Department