- excerpt from La Nouvelle Republique, regional daily.
They are living more than 10,000 km away from their home and left their country at the age of 17. ‘They came from Malaysia in July and could not speak a word of French’, explains Head of the pre-university programme at Blois IUT Mustapha Zaghrioui. ‘During the whole summer, they have learnt our language in Tours’, he adds. A good command of the French language is soon going to be essential for them.
Programme sponsored by the Malaysian government
Indeed, in September, these fifteen Malaysians joined the Blois IUT as part of a programme managed by Sfere (French Company for the export of educational resources). ‘These students are not even high school graduates, but they have achieved a level corresponding to our 11th grade, Science section’, explains Mustapha Zaghrioui. Thus, 700 hours of French classes are added to the science classes during the year.
In this way the IUT ‘allows them to reach the level of Science A-levels so that they can have access to higher education in France’….but not in Blois. ‘They are very shy students, whom we push to become independent, in mixing them with other students. At the end of their studies, that will last five to eight years, they will graduate as ‘engineers or doctors’, further adds Mustapha Zaghrioui. In her still faltering French Kelly says she ‘chose France because engineer schools are more specialized here than in Malaysia’.
Soon Kiet, for his part, considers that the ‘programme, sponsored by the Malaysian government,’ was a good opportunity. Like his fellow students, he receives a scholarship allowing him to live here and in exchange he will have to work for his country ‘for a minimum period of seven years’. None of these students plans to return to Europe afterwards. In spite of this, they really intend to make the most of France during their stay here and they regularly travel to Paris where they have already visited the Eiffel Tower and the Pont des Arts.
Adrian PLANCHON
