By Elena Smith & Lauren Pulh, Year 11
LGB offers numerous IB subjects, and from Chemistry to Philosophy, LGB students definitely have lots of choices. However, it has been a recent subject of debate, that in reality, the school does not offer as many courses as it should, and out of the courses it does offer, many are only available in English.
For students at LGB whose mother tongue is French and do not feel comfortable taking their subjects in English, their IB choices suddenly become less of a choice. Courses such as Philosophy and Computer Science, which are currently not offered in French, could perhaps be excused, as after all they aren’t usually subjects demanded by universities. However, the fact that our school does not even offer Chemistry in French is truly unacceptable. Chemistry is a science that is needed for nearly any scientific career path, including medicine, engineering, applied sciences and many more. For students hoping to study science but who are not confident in English here at LGB, it is incredibly complicated for them to do so. It is understandable that not every subject is going to be available in both languages, however, the school should make a greater effort to offer the ‘main’ subjects, so to speak, in both English and French.
Another point that has recently been heavily criticised, often so by students themselves, is the choices of subjects offered here at LGB. Although there are many to choose from, LGB does not offer Psychology, Film Studies, or Business Studies, whereas the other Ecolint campuses, La Châtaigneraie and Nations do offer them. Although it does make sense that the school cannot offer all of these options, it would be a good idea for the School to take notice of what the students want.
A possible solution to this would be for the school to survey students, and find out what classes they would be interested in taking. This way, the school would be offering subjects that a majority of students are interested in and the subjects would reflect what they want to study. Aforementioned subjects such as Psychology and Film are two classes that often stand out when asking students what subjects they would like the school to add.
This year, the school has offered Politics and Macroeconomics as subjects for Year 11’s, and the courses’ success has been overwhelming. This clearly shows that offering new subjects to LGB’s students can have a positive outcome, and should happen more often.
Although there is the option to take some of the subjects offered by other campuses online, online lessons are not ideal and are much more difficult to manage. The school should offer the courses the students want, and by conducting a survey for LGB students, they could do just this. This survey could include, as mentioned before, the subjects the students would like to have, but could also include an option to choose their preferred language for the course. In doing this, the school would be able to see if there is a large enough interest in subjects like Chemistry in French, and could use it as justification to add it as an option.
To reiterate, it is understandably complicated to offer the right subjects, in the right language, for everyone, but the school can and should try a survey, and for subjects that win a clear majority, could be offered to the next generation of IB students. This way, the students have their opinions heard and the school is sure that the subjects they are offering, or not offering, align with LGB students’ wishes.
