The Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF) plans to send up to 100 teachers to Rwanda over the next two years under a project aimed at enhancing French language teaching among its member states, a senior official from this international organisation grouping french speaking countries told local media Monday in Kigali.At school reopening expected in November, they will be deployed to schools in different parts of the country, with the majority placed in Teacher Training Colleges (TTCs), Iyade Khalaf, the leader of the OIF Teacher Mobility Project said.
For a period of two years (one year, renewable), they will both teach French to students and train fellow teachers.
It is expected that for next year, the project will be expanded to more countries including Ghana, Madagascar, Guinea Conakry and Lebanon.
In Rwanda, the initiative is implemented by La Francophonie in partnership with the Ministry of Education through Rwanda Education Board.
Before the teachers go to classes, they embarked on a week of orientation and training workshops on the educational and sociolinguistic context of Rwanda, and exchanges of practice on the teaching of French as a foreign language in a school context, it said
Accompanied by the expertise of the OIF, Rwanda will develop a national plan for teaching and learning French, linked to the country’s education sector strategy, it said.
Khalaf noted that revitalizing the French language could foster the development of economic integration of Rwanda within the region.
“Rwanda has quite some neighbouring French speaking countries. So when you know French language, it gives you more professional opportunities to work with these countries,” he said.