Starting September 2018, Ecole Internationale Edward Steichen in Clervaux, Lycée Lënster in Junglinster and the future Ecole Internationale Mondorf-les-Bains will offer the European School curriculum in parallel with public school programmes.
They will offer nursery, primary and secondary cycles in French and German in Clervaux, which will have a capacity for 560 pupils; English and German in Junglinster (capacity for 660 students); and English, French and German in Mondorf (capacity for 700 students). The latter will offer a general secondary education section and boarding facilities for 100 young people.
The schools were enshrined into law on Wednesday with 55 voices in favour (CSV, DP, LSAP, déi gréng) against 3 against (ADR).
They come two years after Luxembourg’s education ministry opened the Ecole Internationale de Differdange, a state school teaching the European school curriculum with some elements of Luxembourgish. The school, which has a popular English stream, expanded into Esch-sur-Alzette in September 2017.
In an interview with Delano in December 2017, education minister Claude Meisch (DP) said the decision to expand the offer of international schooling in Luxembourg is a response to the country’s growing cultural diversity. The minister said that at the age of 3 to 4, two-thirds of children in Luxembourg don’t speak Luxembourgish as a first language at home. But the school has not only proven popular with foreign families--the minister also sent his children to the Differdange international school.
According to Schola Europaea, there are 14 accredited European schools across the country.