United Arab Emirates — programme français
Le bac de français à Dubai
Dubai is home to one of the largest French school communities outside France. Three establishments prepare students for the French baccalaureate, and their Year 12 students sit exactly the same anticipated French exam, on the same dates, as those in Paris or Lyon.
What changes is not the exam. It is everything around it: the rhythm of the school year, the difficulty of finding a teacher locally who knows the exam from the inside, and the hour at which you can work together.
Les établissements du réseau français à Dubai
Lycée français international Georges-Pompidou
AEFE directly managed school, founded in 1977, spread across four campuses — environ 2 800 élèves
Lycée français international AFLEC
Partner school of the network, 59 nationalities represented — environ 3 038 élèves
Lycée français Jean-Mermoz
Accredited school, from nursery through to the final year — environ 1 513 élèves
Effectifs indicatifs, relevés sur les fiches du réseau et les sites des établissements. Ils évoluent à chaque rentrée.
Ce qui change quand on prépare l’épreuve depuis Dubai
Year groups are large, and so are the Year 12 classes. A student who starts slipping in French is spotted later than in a small cohort, and often only after the first mock exam — which is to say, late.
Family mobility is the rule. Many students have changed school, sometimes country, between Year 11 and Year 12. The methods for the commentary and the dissertation have then been covered twice by halves, or not at all.
Local tutoring exists, but it is generalist. Finding someone in Dubai who has marked baccalaureate papers and sat on the oral examination panel is a matter of coincidence.
Le détail des épreuves, lui, ne change pas : écrit et oral sont identiques à ceux de métropole.
Le décalage horaire
2 hours ahead of Paris in summer, 3 hours in winter
A 6 pm session in Dubai is 4 pm in Paris: your child works after school without losing the evening, and the French clock causes no difficulty whatsoever.
Les créneaux praticables
- Weekdays after school: 5 pm, 6 pm or 7 pm Dubai time, which is 3 pm, 4 pm or 5 pm in Paris.
- Saturday mornings, a weekend day in the UAE since the move to a Monday-to-Friday week.
- During revision periods, shorter and more frequent sessions rather than one weekly block.
Ce que demandent les familles de Dubai
- Does my child sit the same French exam as in France?
- Yes. The anticipated French examination is identical: same set texts, same exercises, same weighting. Only the examination centre differs.
- Is the time difference a problem?
- Two to three hours is the most comfortable gap there is for working with France. All my sessions with the Emirates take place at the end of the local day, which corresponds to the afternoon in Paris.
- What if we return to France during the year?
- The support continues without interruption and without a new schedule to negotiate. That is one of the real advantages of video sessions for mobile families.
Ailleurs dans le Golfe
J’accompagne des élèves dans plusieurs villes du réseau. Un déménagement n’interrompt pas le suivi.
Premier échange
Votre enfant est scolarisé à Dubai ?
Trente minutes pour faire le point sur sa situation, et vous dire franchement ce qui est réalisable d’ici l’épreuve. Gratuit et sans engagement, à l’heure qui vous arrange.
Réponse sous 24 heures, les jours ouvrés