By Libya Herald reporters.
Tripoli, 12 February 2016:
Tripoli’s French School was kept going after the 2013 bombing of the French embassy, even . . .[restrict]though Paris wanted to close it on security grounds. Three years on, and the school is now struggling to keep going for lack of money.
There were 180 pupils when the nearby embassy in Hay Andalous was badly damaged by an early-morning car bomb. The school roll has now fallen to just 44 with students from kindergarten through to secondary classes.
“We have a €25,000 deficit” Joël Marrouat, the school’s acting head told the Libya Herald, “We need help from individuals, companies or institutions who want the French School to survive, because otherwise we will disappear” he said.
Parents are paying LD 4,750 a year. There is however no more financial support from France. The school now has to rent the building and cover all charges, but said Marrouat, they can use the musical instruments, the computer room and the well-stocked library.
It is the last foreign school in the capital and appears much valued by the remaining pupils and their parents. The results in French state exams have been good. One 15 year old student told this newspaper why he preferred to be there: “In Libyan schools, teachers beat pupils and they don’t take time to explain lessons. And the pupils don’t do their homework”.
This week was end of term and on the last day, teachers and staff made crêpes which the children were munching as they watched a film of “The Little Princess”. There was a happy party atmosphere as everyone seemed determined to forget, for a while at least, that the school is facing very serious financial challenges. [/restrict]
