German increasing in popularity in Reunion

This article in French tells us the number of German students in Réunion and indicates that this is an increase, but doesn't tell us an increase from what...since the number is now 13,000 it's probably up from a former number just below ten thousand or so, but we don't know what that is.

12% of high school students in Réunion choose to learn German, well behind English and Spanish. But there is a certain recovery for the German language in the country....there are 13,000 students in Réunion that learn German, an encouraging number for a département located 10,000 km from Europe. For a decade or so, teachers have tried to promote the language by multiplying partnerships and linguistic exchanges. These efforts are paying given that knowledge of German has become absolutely necessary in some areas. "There are more and more exchanges between both German and Reunionese companies. There are important projects being carried out and there are many German tourists coming here. They are happy when they come here to meet people that speak their language" said Frédérique Bonne, German teacher at Lycée Saint-Paul IV. But there is still some way to go: 14 schools still do not offer German as a language to learn.