Each year, the Agency for French Education Abroad (AEFE) chooses a common thread to unite the schools in its network around shared projects and educational activities. This dynamic creates a real link between primary schools, middle schools, high schools, and educational communities, while strengthening communication around a strong educational focus.
For this school year, the AEFE has chosen to place its action under the theme: “Cultivating creativity and critical thinking in the age of artificial intelligence”. A way to engage with technological news to better take ownership of it and make it a lever for education.
This theme will guide the network’s major events, notably the French International Schools Week, which promotes schools on an international scale, as well as Budding Ambassadors, the network’s emblematic eloquence competition. It also infuses numerous interdisciplinary projects, whether they are carried out during meetings between schools or integrated directly into teaching.
For students, it is an opportunity to question the use and mastery of this rapidly growing tool.
The objectives set by the Agency for French Education Abroad for this year, marked by artificial intelligence, are clearly defined. It involves leading students and teachers to reflect on the pedagogical uses of AI, while developing a critical perspective toward the digital tools that are progressively becoming part of daily school life. The Agency also wishes to encourage initiatives promoting creativity and innovation, while raising the educational community’s awareness of the ethical and responsible issues related to these new technologies.
In other words, the ambition is twofold: to understand the tool to better master it, but also to learn how to use it with discernment so that it becomes a true lever for creativity and learning.
Many schools have already developed projects related to this theme. Often interdisciplinary, they demonstrate a great diversity of pedagogical approaches, depending on the country and school level.
At La Petite École in Hanoi, in Vietnam, classes collaborated on writing a story enriched with artificial intelligence tools, during French International Schools Week. Students developed their characters, refined the plot, and created illustrations using AI. The tool was used as a source of inspiration, and not as a substitute for creativity. The objective: to conduct a reflection on a reasoned use of artificial intelligence while strengthening collaborative skills.
At the Lycée Français International de Bangkok, in Thailand, the theme took the form of various workshops. Students designed a visual arts exhibition around AI and hosted philosophical cafes addressing ethical questions such as: “Does AI teach us anything?”
The Lycée Français de Vienne, in Austria, has also increased its initiatives. Some students wrote and then staged a play about creation assisted by artificial intelligence. This work was part of the “Arts and Writing” project, blending literary creation and digital tools.
The projects carried out in French schools around the world demonstrate that creativity is not limited to the use of a digital tool. They also show that critical thinking is built through debate, experimentation, and collective reflection.
By placing artificial intelligence at the heart of its annual project, the AEFE is not just choosing modernity: it is inviting students and teachers to become enlightened actors in a world undergoing a full transformation.
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