It is always a special and very moving moment for a Minister of Education to inaugurate a new school. It is also a great pleasure for me personally to be with you today with our friend the French Ambassador to Cyprus, Mrs. Salina Grenet-Catalano.
The creation of the French Cypriot school in Limassol implements the decision of Presidents Anastasiades and Macron and is the fruit of the joint efforts of the Governments of Cyprus and France and their commitment to continue and strengthen the bonds of friendship based on common principles and values.
The school we are inaugurating today is yet another expression of the long-standing excellent relations between Cyprus and France and our will to constantly strengthen them. This is a particularly fruitful period in the history of cooperation between the two countries. Cyprus-France relations are today at the highest level and we wish that, in addition to other areas, this is also reflected in education.
I am glad that in their recent meeting, President Nicos Anastasiades and President Emanuel Macron were able to sum up all the progress that has been made in recent years. In particular, among other things, the extension of the teaching of French in secondary education, the support and expansion of the French Cypriot School and the creation of its branch in Limassol, the quadrilateral cooperation between France, Greece, Cyprus, Italy and Greece on ancient languages in public schools and the inclusion of the DELF SCOLAIRE French language certification in public schools. I want to assure you that we will continue to work to strengthen and reinforce our bilateral relations in all areas, as well as to strengthen the policy of foreign international languages in education.
The French Cypriot school belongs to the large dynamic network of French schools outside France, with 566 schools in 138 countries. French schools abroad, with a declared commitment to educational excellence, are supported by the French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs through the Agence pour l'Enseignement Français à l'Etranger (AEFE) and are unique spaces of cultural and linguistic exchange. They are bearers of a shared experience based on the humanistic values of tolerance, equality, intellectual curiosity and the promotion of critical thinking.
The French Cypriot School of Nicosia celebrates its tenth anniversary this year. It is with great satisfaction that we witness the rapid and dynamic growth of the school, which today hosts more than 450 students.
The French Cypriot School, your school, shapes citizens of the modern world, capable of contributing creatively to the development of society and meeting the challenges of the future. I am convinced that in Limassol, too, the French Cypriot School has particular potential for development and in the coming years this will become evident in practice.
Our common ambition is for this school to become not only the beacon of French Cypriot educational cooperation and friendship but also a place conducive to the formation of citizens who will have the skills that will enable them to cope with the pressing and complex problems and needs of our modern world.
In the European Union, our common home - and in the International Organisation of the Francophonie, our common family - education and multilingualism are linked to its fundamental principles and objectives: the consolidation of human rights, respect for diversity and the promotion of democracy.
The French Cypriot School of Limassol is the natural continuation of the French Cypriot School of Nicosia, which over the last 10 years has provided the society of Cyprus and France with well-trained graduates. The school we are inaugurating today takes the baton, aspiring to be another step in promoting Franco-Cypriot educational cooperation and friendship. I am sure that in these beautiful premises of the First Primary School of Limassol, students, pupils and teachers will create a fruitful environment for teaching and learning.
I would also like to thank the Limassol School Ephorate for its cooperation. I believe that by empowering this historic school building with a student population, we have a good opportunity to achieve the revitalization of the city centre.
I warmly thank the French Government, the Embassy of France in Cyprus, especially my dear friend the Ambassador, the Management and the Management Committee of the French Cypriot School, the President and members of the Limassol School Ephorate and the Management of the First Primary School of Limassol for their contribution to the completion of this effort.
I assure you once again that the Ministry of Education, Sports and Youth and I personally will always be at your side for its continuous improvement and upgrading. We hand it over today to our children and their teachers. Let them enjoy it, let them take care of it, let them love it and let them make the most of the new opportunities it offers them.
I hope it will be a good one and that it will give us good students, worthy citizens and above all people, nurtured with the universal values of freedom, democracy and humanism bequeathed to us by ancient Greek civilisation and the French Enlightenment.
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