ACTIVITY REPORT

2021-2022

Alliance française de Lucknow

La Martinière Girls’ College
Rana Prata Marg, Hazratganj
Lucknow, UP, 226001
1
In October 2021 a new Director joined Alliance
française de Lucknow. Send by the French
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Vincent Miny was
appointed for a duration of 2 years minimum
and 4 years maximum at the head of the
youngest Alliance in India.
Arriving after 2 difficult years of pandemic,
he took over after Dr Meeta Ghosh, who was
invited to keep working with Alliance française
de Lucknow as a “Special councillor”, until the
end of her contract in February 2023.
He was very kindly welcomed by the team
of Alliance française but also by the different
members of the Executive Committee who
have been helping him in the discovery of
the city and the description of his new work
environment. He was equally cheered by
his colleagues of the different sectors of the
French Embassy and the French Institute in
India, as well as his fellow Directors of Alliance
française. All were very keen on helping
Alliance française de Lucknow to become a
real part of the French cultural network in India,
The Team of Alliance française de Lucknow in October 2021
Thanks to these many supports in
Lucknow and in India, he was able to start
a very productive working movement in
Alliance française de Lucknow, focussing
on the creation and the implementation
of many tools needed for the general
administration of the organisation, the
quality and organisation of the courses, the
management of Human Resources and the
implementation of a real communication.
In six months, many changes were then
implemented under the guidance of
the Executive Committee, to update the
activities of Alliance française and slowly
making it more effective. Reviewing all
these changes and improvements, the
current Activity Report aims to clarify
the operational processes of Alliance
française de Lucknow as well as helping
the reader understand the bases on which
the cultural and pedagogical actions of the
organisation will be implemented in the
future.
2
General Administration
+ Governance and Management
Recognised by the French Embassy in India,
Alliance française de Lucknow is governed
by an Executive Committee composed of
important personalities of Lucknow, active
or retired from fields of education, culture,
science and business. Since the arrival of the
new Director in October 2021, three different
Executive Committee Meetings were
conducted, in October, in January and in
March, on which very precise minutes were
noted. Between these gatherings, several
subjects relevant to the administration of
Alliance française de Lucknow were also
circulated, when emergencies occurred.
Regarding the day to day organisation of
Alliance française, most of the important
documents were kept only in physical
copies presents on the shelves of the office,
sometimes drawn in an ocean of unessential
documents dated from the first years of
Alliance française. Even if such original
are essential to the good administration
of the structure, being able to easily find
and access copies of these documents is
equally important.
Hence, an important work has been done
to recover the different soft copies of these
documents and to store them in a same
place. When soft copies could not been
found (situation which often occurred), scan
copies were made using the colour printer
bought by the Director, to ensure the storage
and preservation of all the documents of
Alliance.
A common Online Drive was also set up to
insure all the members of Alliance française
Team could work efficiently on the same
folders and exchange files and documents
fluently. This common work structure has
really improved the general missions and
helped to work from home, when the
occasion occurred.
+ Premises and materiel
Alliance française de Lucknow is hosted in
the premises of La Martinière Girls College,
in a clean and well equipped surface
comprising 2 classrooms and 1 room used
as an office for the Team. Despite not being
used for the past 2 years of pandemic,
the 2 classrooms are well equipped with
tables, chairs and whiteboard, as well as
very efficient video projectors. Thanks
to the French Institute in India, a specific
device dedicated to the organization of
hybrid classes was installed with a mural
screen. After some time and experiments,
this device will allow our Alliance française
Teachers to teach both online and offline
in the same time.
Unchanged since the arrival of Alliance in
these premises, the entire organisation of
the office was changed to insure that the
space is more decent to live but also to
make
Among the missing part of an Alliance
française, a proper library should be set up
during the next years. Alliance française de
Lucknow has indeed many books which
are stored in cartons while they should be
at disposition of its public.
One of the classes of Alliance française de Lucknow 3
Academic Performances
Even if Alliance française’s activities have Prices of Indoor courses of Alliance française de Lucknow

slowed during the 2 years of pandemic, its

activities were not stopped and the team
managed to organize some classes, using
limited technical resources and reaching new
students only through personal networks of the
director and Executive Committee members.

After the arrival of the new director, many tools

were created and the whole organisation of
the Academic part of Alliance française de
Lucknow was modified to fit the general frame
of work of the other Alliances françaises in the
world.

+ Organisation of the courses

Before 2022, each level was divided in a certain
amount of sublevels of a duration of 26 hours
each. For instance the level A1 was divided
into A1.1, A1.2, A1.3, A1.4 for a total of 104 hours.
This system was established in 2017 to fit the
general calendar of the classes proposed (only
offline at the time). In such a system, the same
student enrolling for the level A1 would count
as 4 registrations.
This system was changed to fit the new
curriculum introduced with the adoption of
“Cosmopolite” by all the Alliances française
in India in 2020. Now, all the CEFRL levels are
divided into sublevels of 60 hours and the
students are not allowed to enrol only for one
sublevel anymore.
In such a system, a student enrolling for the
level A1 counts as 1 registrations (instead of 4
before), making it more readable.
+ Pricing
Unchanged since the opening of Alliance
française in 2016, the different prices proposed
for the courses have been changed to fit the
CEFRL structure and be closer to the reality of
the pedagogical work.
The following sheet notes the new prices for
the classes in Alliance française de Lucknow.
+ Courses Method
If teaching of the classes remains of the
same quality, fitting to the Action-Based
Methodology proposed by the CEFRL,
Alliance française de Lucknow is now using
a different book.
Adopted by all the Alliances françaises in
India in the beginning of 2020, the series
of French as a Foreign Language books
“Cosmopolite” are now fully used in Alliance
française de Lucknow for all the Indoor
Classes. More demanding, they need a few
more hours to be completed and come with
an entire set of audio and videos supports
which can be used by the teachers.
For the “Prim” public (7-10 years old) and the
“Junior” public (10 – 14 years old), the books
‘Les loustics” and “Adomania” are the one
selected by the network of Alliances.
Alliance française de Lucknow had a great
amount of the teaching methods previously
used (“Saison”), which were returned to the
publisher (Goyal) and replaced by a stock of
Cosmopolites and Adomania methods, to fit
the needs of the public.
4
A set of Specimens were given to the + Academics results
teachers of Alliance française, according to
the classes they are teaching. As noted previously, the mode of
computing for the courses was not leading
to very readable and relevant results since
+ Courses Software every student was counted many times in
the same level.
Until 2020, Alliance française de Lucknow
Alliance française de Lucknow is now
was using a courses management software
following the same way of computing
named “Arc-en-ciel”. This software was
its academic results than all the other
allowing the management of the courses
Alliances in India and in the world with
database but since Alliance française de
noting 1 registration for 1 entire level.
Lucknow choose not to reconduct the
licence after it expired, all the datas of the
To have better understanding of the real
3 first years of activity were deleted by the
results, and being able to compare our
society.
datas over the years it is also important to
compare these registrations numbers with
Thanks to the French Embassy in India,
the ammount of new students acquired,
a new software named «HANAF» was
the number of hours sold, and to know
provided to Alliance française de Lucknow
whether these students were enrolled in
and implemented in December 2022.
the adults courses of Alliance française
Although the previous database is not going
(Indoor Classes) or if they are depending
to be recovered, this new software and its
of a partnership with another organisation
proper utilisation by Alliance française Team
(Outdoor Classes).
already lead to a better management of the
courses.
Accessing such information is crucial for
the work of the pedagogical team, to set
Unlike what was previously done, the courses
up clear objectives for Alliance française
are now properly followed, the attendance
and the for the presentation of clear and
of teachers and students is noted, the price
accurate results.
paid by each student is carefully computed,
as well as the number of hours due to
each teacher. This very useful tool is also
permitting to have accurate statistics about
our academic results.

Academic results 2027- 2022

5

On the previous sheet, you can see the
previous way of computing the numbers of
registrations. In green, the new calculation
for the students has been implemented.
Unfortunately, since the previous courses
data were lost with the abandon of the
software “Arc-en-ciel”, it is not possible to
extract data’s we can compare to have a
clearer picture of the academic results of
the previous years.
+ Courses following
One of the major tool that remains to be
implemented in Alliance française de
Lucknow is the Learning Management
Software “Apolearn/MyAlliance” which allow
a proper management of the online classes,
the constitution of groups, the creation
and animation of exercises and many other
possibilities that are needed for the proper
implementation of courses online and offline.
This platform was implemented in all
Alliances française in India on the beginning
of the pandemic but not in Lucknow. It is
very important to insure the quality of the
teaching that this platform is implemented
in 2022 and all the teachers trained to use it
thoroughly.
Academic results 2017-2022
Cultural Projects
Given the major difficulties known by Alliance
française de Lucknow and many other
structures in the world during the two years
of pandemic, not many cultural events were
held in Lucknow since 2019.
+ Exhibition “Food Mythology”
Thanks to the French Embassy in India and
Alliance française in Bhopal, an exhibition
took place within the frame of the Mahindra
Sanat Kada Festival from the 4th to the 8th of
March 2022. This very colourfull exhibition
from the French Artist Enora Lallet was the
result of an artistic residence in Bhopal and
portrayed different characters entirely painted
and surrounded by food.
Even if the Sanat Kada festival was kind
enough to host the exhibition for free, they
unfortunately did not had anything fitting
to display the paintings in good conditions.
Easels have then been bought, funded for
most part by the director. Stored on the night
time in a safe room, the exhibition was then
displayed every morning and removed every
evening by the Director of Alliance française
de Lucknow.
6

Another problem occurred with the
absence of person to take care and
protect the exhibition during the few
moments where the Director was not
present. On an afternoon where a small
breeze blew, some of the easels fell on
the ground. Fortunately, the Treasurer of
Alliance française was present to protect
and reinstall the exhibition but at the
moment she left, nobody in the festival
took care of it. Due to that unfortunate
lack of care, one of the paintings was
damaged and the entire exhibition had to
be removed from the festival.
Despite these few problems and the
important work it demanded to install
it and store it every day, this exhibition,
was very well received by the public and
its ideal location at the entrance of the
festival insured that more than 10,000
people from the public of the Festival
have witnessed this first cultural event of
2022.
Even if many persons saw this beautiful
events, if many pictures were taken and
published on social medias, the most
important was the presence next to it
of a table and standee advertising for
the courses of Alliance française de
Lucknow. For the whole duration of the
Exhibition in Sanat Kada Festival
festival, the teachers and the Director were
present to promote and explain the interest
of learning French, joined on the Saturday
evening by the two other members of
Alliance française Team.
This physical presence on the festival was
very effective and more than 25 people
registered for the Demonstration Class that
was held a few days after.
+ Francophonie Day(s)
During the Francophonie month of March,
the Special Councillor of Alliance française
de Lucknow organised different interactions
with the learners from different institutions
of Uttar Pradesh.
The first one was done online with the
students of Amity University. Total of
13 students proposed different songs,
presentations and recitations of poems in
French to a Jury comprising two teachers
of Alliance française de Lucknow and the
Special councillor. t
Another event of this sort is to be conducted
with IT College on March the 25th, gathering
12 students.
7
Communication
The presence on this important event of the
cultural life of Lucknow was very successful
and raised an important interest to the French
Classes of Alliance française in Lucknow,
but an important work was also done over
the six past months on establishing efficient
and accurate communication tools that
would help in reaching a wider public.
+ Location and presence online
Updating the information on Google,
Facebook and other online sites where
Alliance française de Lucknow was poorly
referenced was a very important first step
in promoting our products and services.
Many potential customers were indeed
mentioning their incapacity to find the
premises of Alliance because of the mis-
location on Google Maps, or their difficulties
to reach Alliance française due to false
telephone numbers displayed on different
websites. These troubles are now over and
all the reference website now display the
same accurate information about Alliance
française de Lucknow
+ Telephone
The telephone number of Alliance française
de Lucknow is currently owned by its
Treasurer who is very generously providing it
to the organisation. That telephone number
being the official number of Alliance, it
seems important that it remains and that, at
some point, the ownership of the number
shifts to the organisation.
At the arrival of the director, no smartphone
was present in Alliance française
impeaching the organisation to interact
with its public by using WhatsApp or any
other kind of online messages. A cheap
but very effective smartphone was bought
and is now used with a lot of efficiency by
Alliance’s team, on a daily basis.
The front page of the website
+ Website
The main improvement to the
communication tools of Alliance française
was undoubtedly the complete creation
of a website by the Director of Alliance
française de Lucknow less than 3 weeks
after his arrival in the city.
By recovering the ancient website URL and
exchanging with the company Betanet,
developer of all the websites of Alliances
françaises in India, a very interesting price
was negotiated only for the hosting of the
website. After that, the site was entirely
designed and written by the Director of
Alliance française in October 2021, coping
with the complete absence of online
visibility since the creation of Alliance
française de Lucknow.
A few month later, after the different
products and services proposed by
Alliance française de Lucknow were
correctly priced and evaluated, an online
shop was added to the original website,
allowing the future customers to select
their products and to pay directly after their
visit of the site’s content.
8
Unfortunately we are still waiting at this
date for a proper integration of a Payment
Gateway. Discussed on the last meeting
of the Executive Committee, only one
document is missing to propose an efficient
online payment to our future customers.
+ Social media
Very mildly used before October 2021, a
special attention was given to the presence
of Alliance française on most major Social
Media like Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn.
An average of two posts per week were
started, with graphics or videos designed
by the Director of Alliance française de
Lucknow, always coming with some texts
and the information of Alliance française
de Lucknow. All the names and URL of the
social media were changed to fit the same
standard : @AfLucknow
These regular posts are very important
for the continuous presence and the
mobilisation of our communities on social
media. However, it is important that they
are completed by regular paid posts
and paid advertisement, to be able to
reach our targeted audience. Since the
month of November 2021, different paid
advertisement were designed and funded
by the Director of Alliance française de
Lucknow with an average reaching of
27,000 persons per post in the area of
Lucknow. These posts were very successful
and played a role in the attraction of new
students in the month of January.
the arrival of Sanat Kada festival on which it
would be important to be very visible.
A very complete brochure, reviewing the
different products and services proposed
by Alliance française de Lucknow was
designed in a few days by the Director of
Alliance française, as well as a Roll-up
“Learn French in Lucknow”. Before that
some stickers were also designed and a
few were distributed in the different DELF
examinations.
+ Presentations
Since the month of October, many
presentation of Alliance française were
made by the Director in various schools
and colleges from Uttar Pradesh. These
presentations were mostly online (CMS
Gomti Nagar 1 in March, IT College in
January), with the end of last COVID-19’
wave but a few of them have been made
offline (Awadh Girls’ Degree College in
November, Tender Hearts School in March).
These presentation aimed to help the
different schools to recruit more students
for the French Classes.

+ Brochure and physical tools

Among the various promotion tools
present in Alliance française de Lucknow
in October, many were very obsoletes or
were using old designs.

With the help of Alliance française de

Bhopal, an important work have been done
for the creation of new tools, especially with The Brochure of Alliance française de Lucknow

9
Outreaching
All the different communication tools,
noted earlier in this Activity Report are
complementary and have been implemented
to ensure that a wider public reaches Alliance
française de Lucknow and benefits from its
courses, services and cultural events.
In addition to these online and offline
promotion tools, an important work has been
conducted in the last six month of the financial
year 2021-2022 to meet the different heads of
various schools, colleges and universities in
order to propose them some French Classes
and certifications but also to be known from
these organisation. In most cases, the people
met during these outreaching part were not
even awares of the existence of an Alliance
française in Lucknow.
+ Schools and Universities Meeting
This reaching out part took place in many
organisations of Lucknow and Benares such
as:
- Lucknow University
- Indian Institute of Management
- Tender heart school
- La Martinière Boys College
- La Martinière Girls College
- IT College
- Kunskapsskolan
- Amity University
- Awadh Girls Degree College
- City Montessori School Main Branch
- City Montessori School Aliganj
- City Montessori School Gomti Nagar 1
- Benares Hindu University
- Aryan International School
Always very cordials, these various meetings,
officials or non-officials, were moments to offer
different pedagogical services and products
but also to meet different French Teachers
already working in various institutions.
If not many results were present until the
moment this Activity Report is written, it is to
be noted that a great amount of enthusiasm
exists in these different institutions to have
French Classes conducted by certified and
competent teachers. Even if as of now,
these contacts, even those followed by
presentations to the parents and students,
have not been very successful, it is without
doubt that French classes and workshops
will be open in the future.
It is important to continue proposing these
services to many institutions of Uttar
Pradesh and especially the universities and
college from Lucknow but also from other
cities. In the past six months one mission to
Benares have been organised, but the next
important cities of the state (Agra, Kampur,
Ayodhya and Aligarh) will be visited in
the next months to introduce the work of
Alliance française in Lucknow and look for
new opportunities.
Another point to be noted is the difficulties
to meet the Department of Culture and
Tourism of Uttar Pradesh. Despite many
demands and introduction through one of
our Committee Member, the state elections
held in February-March 2022, were not an
ideal time for reaching a State Secretary or
his administration.
+ French Network in India
The possibility to physically meet members
from the French Embassy and the French
Institute in India, as well as other directors
of Alliances françaises in India with whom
Alliance française de Lucknow is working
around the year, is very important. for the
place of the organisation in the French
Network in India and for building fruictful
work relationships.
On the arrival of the Director of Alliance
10
française in India, the Cultural Councelor of the
Embassy came to Lucknow to greet him and
meet the different members of the committee.
This cheerful moment was a privileged time to
get to know the committee of Alliance française
and set up a peacefull working atmosphere.
In November 2021, the Director of Alliance
française in Lucknow was invited to Delhi to attend
the C.O.S. 2021 (Strategic Orientation Committee),
organised by the French Embassy and the French
Institute in India.
Later in the month of December, he was
unfortunately not able to attend the gathering
of Alliances françaises in Chandigarh. Even if the
specific training dedicated to communication
matters which was proposed during this event
would have been particularily usefull for Lucknow,
it was not possible at this time to spare one
member of Alliance française given the lack of
human ressources to properly organise the DELF
examination of December.
Human Resources
Alliance française was working with only two
administrative members during the first half of
the year and was very enthusiastic of the arrival of
a new French Director in October 2021. The new
posting of an expatriated Director being a real
token of the importance that Alliance française de
Lucknow has for the French Embassy in India and
of its will to continue its activities in Lucknow and
in Uttar Pradesh.
+Administrative Team
The administrative team is now composed of
Dr. Meeta Ghosh, the previous director who was
allowed to keep working in Alliance française
as a Special Councillor with the duty to help
in increasing the number of students ;
and of Mr. Vivek Pant, administrator of
Alliance française, taking care of the
entire management of Alliance française
operations. Already well trained in all the
matters of front end and students guidance,
he participated to a very interesting training
organised by the British Council in the month
of February 2022, focussing on marketing,
emailing and interpersonal relations.
To achieve its different pedagogical
operations, Alliance française de Lucknow
was using the services of many French
teachers, teaching only online from the
beginning of the pandemic. Among them
we could find Kavita Srivastava et Abhilasha
Soni, both coming from Lucknow, as well as
Arka Bhatarcharya and Tahereh Rahimdel
respectively living in Patna and Ahmedabad.
+ Different issues
Among these teachers, different problems
were met along the year. Ms. Soni was
entrusted with many classes in City
Montessori School that she completely
neglected, cancelling many courses at the
last minute or teaching only with the help of
YouTube videos. Such poor quality of teaching
and lack of professionalism inducted some
trust issue with our partners from CMS and
occasioned many non-payments from
different parents until it was discovered (by
chance). Fortunately, this is the only example
that occurred during this year of such a
neglected quality of teaching, unfitting to the
standard of an Alliance française.
As for the other teachers, Mrs. Srivastava
stopped teaching for personal reasons while
Mrs. Rahimdel increased her prices after the
pandemic (from Rs. 550 to Rs. 650 per hour).
Even if the teaching quality of this person
were absolutely undeniable, these rates are
too high for Alliance française de Lucknow
11
which normally pays its teachers Rs. 400/
hour for an underqualified teacher and Rs.
500 for a qualified one. Mr. Bhatarchanya
is still working with Alliance française de
Lucknow, taking care of our online week-
end courses.
+ Interns FLE
To handle the lack of qualified French
Teachers in Lucknow and prepare the re-
opening of physical French Classes, two
interns specialised in the teaching of French
as a Foreign Language were hired from
France with their travel and accommodation
paid by the Director of Alliance française
de Lucknow. Arrived in January 2022 with
a Business and a Student Visa, these two
future Teachers are not paid by Alliance
française for their courses. However it was
decided to refund them up to Rs. 20,000
per month for the general expenses their
courses woul occur. This refund is done
by using per diem as advised by the other
Alliances françaises of India, and after
seeking advice and approval from the
Chartered Accountants of Alliance.
Since their arrival they have been taking
care of many classes (16 hours per week
for Mrs. Elie and 20 per week for Mrs.
Caron), generating more profits for Alliance
française de Lucknow but also giving to
the organisation a fresh and well trained
pedagogical team, which the student really
value. These two teachers were also trained
to become DELF, DFP and TEF examiners
and are now fully part of the examination
team of Alliance française.
Unfortunately these interns will not
be present more than 6 months and
substitution should be found for the correct
management of the courses in Alliance
française (especially for the highest levels).
Many potential French teachers were met
during the previous month but unfortunately
not many were having a sufficient level to
provide French Courses fitting to Alliance
française standard and methodology.
Only one very professional young lady was
met and identified as a potential future
Teacher. She could take care of the lowest
levels while being trained by the teachers of
Alliance française de Lucknow with the help
of the French Embassy in India.
Funding and Finances
Even during the pandemic, Alliance française
de Lucknow was able to continue its various
activities thanks to the operation of online
classes, the hiring of teachers from different
cities in India and the help of an operating
grant of 5,000 € from the French Embassy in
2021 (around Rs. 4,31 lakh). Unfortunately as
from the new policies of the French Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, such grants solely dedicated
to the conduct of general operation are not
given to Alliance françaises anymore.
Nethertheless, being able to receive foreign
funds is crucial for the conduct of the various
projects of Alliance française de Lucknow.
Whether it is to receive other kinds of grants
from the French Embassy in India or from
other public institutions, or to present projects
to public and private foundations from the
French and Francophone world.
+ FCRA Account
To be able to do so, an operational FCRA
account is mandatory in India and, despite
the fact that Alliance française de Lucknow
does not have yet a fully operational one, it
has been granted the possibility to open a
“Prior Permission” FCRA Account in order to
receive up to Rs. 10,00,000/- total. On this
12
total amount, more than 8 lakh have been + Results of the Financial year
received since this “Prior permission” FCRA
has been accepted.
2021-2022
Thanks to the work of the entire Alliance
In order to have a fully operational FCRA
française Team and the grant received by
Account which would ensure that Alliance
the French Embassy in India in July 2021,
française de Lucknow can receive and
Alliance française de Lucknow was able
use funds freely to accomplish its various
to finish the financial year with an almost
missions, it needs to be dutily registered.
perfectly balanced results.
The management of this registration
process was entrusted to the Charted
It is important to note that Alliance française
Accountant agency Asija and Accountants
de Lucknow have not constituted itself
and was not successful so far.
with an important working capital over the
years and that its activities are now barely
Given that this problem is unfortunately
covering its expenses. In the month of
shared by many Alliances françaises of
March 2022 the working capital of Alliance
India, the French Embassy has demanded
française de Lucknow on its saving account
that this point was put in the last discussion
was enough to cover 2 months of activities.
between the French and Indian Ministers
Hopefully with the opening of new classes
of Foreign Affairs. Hopefully this recent
and the diversification of Alliance française
exchanges and the political influence of
products, this financial management liability
the French Embassy in India will soon help
will soon be overcome.
to solve this general problem.

Income and expensens 2021- 2022of Alliance française de Lucknow

13
Certifications
Among the important improvement that
marked the second half of the year 2021-2022,
it is important to note that Alliance française de
Lucknow is now a fully operational certification
centre in which the students of Uttar Pradesh
can pass the DELF, the TEF and the DFP
certification.
With the arrival of the new Director of Alliance
française, different teachers were invited to
pass the habitation for becoming examiners.
Mrs Alka Mathur, has successfully become
examiner of DELF B1 in the month of November
2021. Unfortunately, she has left the city of
Lucknow to become the first French Teacher
of the University of Ayodhya. It is to be hope
that this will be the start of a cooperation with
this other important city of Uttar Pradesh.
In February and March 2022, the two native
French Teachers of Alliance française have
also been succeeding in the DELF A1 and A2
habilitation. They also have started the TEF
and DFP habilitation, delivered by Le Français
des Affaires.
hired for the B2 students. 18 candidates
presented the examination and 100% of
them succeeded.
The third one was done in the month of
March 2022 and even if it beneficiated from
a lot of advertisement on WhatsApp, Social
media and by communicating directly with
the directors of Schools, Colleges and
Universities of Lucknow and Benares met
by the Director and Special councillor, only
3 candidates registered.
This very small amount was not an isolated
case and was reported as the same in all
Alliances françaises in India for the session
of March. This could be explained by the
many end of session examinations in
Schools and Universities at this period in
India. Whatever the reason, this was very
disappointing for Alliance française Team
because of the lack of income in the month
of February 2022 and the lot of hope given
in the enrolment of many candidates.

+ Examination results
In 2021-2022, three different sessions of
DELF were conducted in Alliance française
de Lucknow. The first one was organised in
September 2021 by the French Institute and
conducted by Maryline Laidin, Attachée de
Coopération pour le Français, with the help
of Alliance française’ Team. It gathered 22
candidates.

The second was operated in December

2021 by the Director and was the first session
conducted entirely by Alliance française de
Lucknow since 2019. Alongside the director,
Mrs. Alka Mathur helped for the examination
until the B1 levels while two examiners from
Alliance française de Chandigarh were
The candidates in the DELF Session of December 2022

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Translations
Willing to propose different services and
products to ensure more revenue, Alliance
française de Lucknow has been accredited
by the French Embassy in India as the only
official translation centre in Uttar Pradesh. This
credit was made possible by the arrival of
the new Director and native members of the
pedagogical team, among which a teacher
with a solid experience in translation.
An official stamp was then created and the
signature of the head of the translation centre
was registered by the Embassy to insure
the authenticity and the trackability of the
translation proposed in Alliance française de
Lucknow. Different prices, tools and processes
were created to ensure the best service and
the easiest process possible for the team of
Alliance française de Lucknow.
Miscellaneous
Alliance française de Lucknow had to face
many issues during the financial year 2021-
2022, and a certain form of re-organisation of
its activities and tools used, in order to provide
better services to the public and a better
workflow to its team and teachers.
+ Disengaging Students
One of the problems faced was the presence
of persons not willing to continue their French
Classes and dropping in the middle of their
classes. This phenomenon was amplified by
the division of the courses in many sublevels
of 26 hours and the absence of formal
pedagogical contract and engagement
letter. As stated earlier, the students are now
enrolling directly for an entire level with the
signing of an engagement letter by which
they commit to pay by instalment.
Even if this registration process is much
more convenient and practical, we faced
one case where a student refused to pay
her second instalment. No legal action has
yet been taken against her.
+ Non Paying Members
The democratic process of an Alliance
française relies on the presence and activity
of various members. Another issue resides
with different active members not paying
their registrations fees. These members
were contacted directly during the month
of February and among the 15 of them,
only one answered and paid his fees for the
year 2022.
+ Contracts
Among the other financial and legal tools
that Alliance française de Lucknow was
lacking for the management of its activities,
we can count the absence of legal contracts
in the employment of the teachers. Even
if paid by the hour, the professors were
not bound with the organisation by any
kind of contract that would frame their
pedagogical activities.
Different contracts type have now
be created and will be approved by
the Executive Committee before any
appointment of teachers.
+ Financial Documents
The same thing applied with the financial
operation and no models of invoice or
quotation was present. These important
professional tools have been created and
are now systematically used to interact with
our different partners on financial matters.
15
Banking Issues
Finally one of the major issues resides
in the immense difficulty for the Director
of Alliance française de Lucknow to
open a Bank Account in ICICI branch of
Lucknow. Being able to open an Indian
account for a non-Indian resident is
unfortunately a very difficult task and
since the Director did not received a
proper Identification Card from the
Ministry of Home Affairs in the month of
December, this entire process was not
made easy.

Henceforth, he had to apply for a

regular bank account in December
and this demand is since then pending,
despite daily calls and contact with
the manager of ICICI main branch. This
long process is unfortunately the only
one able to ensure that the Director of
Alliance française becomes signatory
for the legal and financial operations of
Alliance française de Lucknow.

Office of Alliance française de Lucknow

16