Multilingual Early Language Transmission (MELT) - Mercator ...

Parents in Brittany are mostly also learners of the Breton language themselves, they cannot
read or write in Breton. There are almost no written documents in Breton only, usually
documents in Breton are bilingual Breton/French.
Some pre-school provisions organise (grand) parent meetings. There is collaboration with
godparents, elderly people who stimulate the Breton language.
However, the participation of the parents depends on the policy of the pre-school
organisations.
2.5.2 Institutions of the pre-school education
In France, pre-school education relates to day care settings for children from 0 to 3 years.
Most of the pre-school settings in Lower Brittany are for the 0-3 years-old children. In big
cities and in Upper Brittany there are pre-schools for children aged 3-4 years. Even though
the compulsory primary school starts for children aged 6 almost every child in Brittany goes
to (pre-) school from the age of 3 years. In Brittany the term ‘school’ is used for the schoolsystems
for children aged 3 years and older.
In Brittany there are 2 provisions for children up to 3 years:
Childminders
Most of the children stay at childminders 69 (a kind of babysitter), the rest stays at day
care centres or at home provided their parents don't work.
Day care centres
Children attend day care centres when they are about 3 months old up to 3 year.
Even if the compulsory school starts when they are 6 years-old almost every child in
Brittany goes to ‘school’ from the age of 3 years. Most of these day care centres are
opened from Monday util Friday, from 7.30 or 8.00 in the morning, until 6.00 or 6.30
in the evening. Children do not have to stay all day long.
Divskouarn 70 defines two types of day care centres using Breton in pre-school settings for
children from 0 to 3 years-old:
Day care centre Model 1 : At least one activity in Breton each week.
Day care centre Model 2 : At least two practitioners working in Breton, every day
they offer activities in Breton.
Divskouarn want to develop a model 3, were every practitioner of the day care centre works
in Breton, this type of setting doesn't exist yet.
For children from 3 to 6 years old, there are three types of pre-schools:
Public bilingual schools
Public bilingual schools (“école maternelle”) are required to offer at least as much
French as Breton. For the moment there is no official curriculum about teaching
Breton, a lot depends on the teacher. Public bilingual pre- schools are depending on
69 Divskouarn is the organisation for Breton language in pre-school and has 17 day-care centres in their network. In Brittany almost 85% of
the children up to 3, attend childminders. In 2010 there are about 10 childminders speaking Breton. NPLD, the questionnaires from the
project ‘Pre-School Education’ (2010). http://www.npld.eu/currentprojectsbestpractise/pre-schooled/pages/default.aspx [Accessed June
2011].
70 Website of Divskouarn: http://divskouarn.free.fr [Accessed June 2011].
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