in Brittany, at the Ponant Islands College, 50 years of teaching to the rhythm of the sea

This September 2, his students and teachers will also return to college, or rather of the colleges. On each Breton island, the iodized journey will however be barely a few dozen or hundreds of meters for the college students. Sometimes more for the teachers, up to an hour by boat from the continent. “We often hear about the Ouessant college [la plus grande, 1 000 habitants, NDLR] or Sein. But these are indeed branches of a single college: that of the Ponant Islands” recalls Marie Kervadec, its principal, at the tiny administrative headquarters of this strange public establishment, in Brest.

The other islands covered between Finistère and Morbihan, up to 200 kilometres apart, are called Batz, Groix, Molène and Houat. The latter two, the two smallest, have barely 150 and 200 inhabitants per year. In total, 80 pupils are enrolled in the college: barely three in Sein, around thirty in Groix. “My school is not very big but it is very nice. You don’t get lost there, everyone knows each other. There is a small courtyard, two or three classrooms, a staff room. There are only six of us in the class,” describes 12-year-old Abel, who performs…