La Dictée P.G.L. overseas

Key activity of the Paul Gérin-Lajoie Foundation in Canada, La Dictée P.G.L. is also held in Africa, Haiti and the United States of America.

La Dictée P.G.L. started in 1991 for francophone schools. In 1992, in response to increasing demand from French immersion schools for which La Dictée P.G.L. was a good way to encourage children improving their French writing skills, a second category was created.  Since then, La Grande Finale internationale has two champions each year: one under the French schools' category, the other one under the French immersion schools' category.

Outside Canada, Senegalese schoolchildren were the first ones to participate in La Dictée P.G.L. in 1992, following the same rules as their Canadian counterparts for the most part. Then, in 1994, a few American schools joined in, followed in 1998 by schools in Haiti. Mali schools participated in 1996 and 2001. Last year, close to 300 000 children in and outside Canada took part in La Dictée P.G.L.

La Dictée P.G.L. is much more than a school project. It is a way for thousands of youngsters throughout the world to reach out beyond their own borders. In the words of Malick Bâ, in charge of organizing La Dictée P.G.L. in Senegal: "La Dictée P.G.L. is a wonderful challenge for young Senegalese because French is not their native language. But La Dictée P.G.L. also gives Canadian schoolchildren an opportunity to better understand Africa. By being in contact with Africans, Canadians stop seeing our continent as a place of misery and start seeing it as a place where children go to school, appreciate their culture and are eager to share it." Haitian and Senegalese schoolchildren are particularly happy to take part in La Dictée P.G.L. Much more than just another way to improve their French, they foresee in this opening to the world a sign of hope for better tomorrows.