ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Danielle Mitterrand French School has officially been recognized as an international school in Erbil, the institution’s board announced Thursday, a move that will allow graduates to pursue gradual education abroad without undergoing cumbersome degree equalization processes.
“We are further evolving into an international school,” Sherri Kraham Talabany, chairperson of the school’s board of directors, told Rudaw on Thursday, noting that while the school will maintain its French curriculum, administrators are “adding more coursework in English” so enrolled students can become “truly multilingual,” learning French, English, Kurdish, Arabic, and Spanish.
Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani attended the event and joined other officials and the school’s administration in cutting a cake to mark the achievement.
Hazhar Hassan, the school's vice principal, explained to Rudaw that under the new multilingual education model, 40 percent of the curriculum will be taught in English, 50 percent in French, and the remaining 10 percent in other languages.
“As a standard, every grade receives four Kurdish classes a week,” Hassan said.
Yann Braem, the French consul general in Erbil, hailed the milestone, telling Rudaw it will ensure the continuation of a “very strong partnership between France and Kurdistan, between the French people and the Kurdish people.”
Braem added that the transition ensures "a very high quality of education" will continue to be provided to the students.
Established in 2009, the Danielle Mitterrand French School has campuses in Erbil and Sulaimani, providing education from preschool to high school level.
Nisha Zangana, an 11th-grade student who previously lived in Canada, expressed her delight regarding the school's international transition, noting that 12th-graders will specifically benefit from the accreditation.
“For instance, after finishing school, I will now have the option to pursue my studies in any country around the world,” Zangana said.
The school is named after Danielle Mitterrand, the first lady of France from 1981 to 1995. She is affectionately known by locals as the “Mother of the Kurds” for her fierce advocacy for the Kurdish people during their oppression under the Ba'athist regime of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
Mitterrand played an instrumental role in campaigning for the establishment of the 1991 no-fly zone, a cornerstone of the Kurdistan Region’s path toward its current autonomy. She also attended the inauguration of the first Kurdish regional parliament in 1992.
France was among the first countries to open a consulate in Erbil after the fall of Saddam's regime in 2003, and Paris has remained a key military and diplomatic ally for Kurdish forces in both Iraq and Syria during the campaign against the Islamic State (ISIS).
Liliia Mirautsa contributed to this report from Erbil.
