THE government of France has set aside 1.10bn/-(€384,000) to promote French language in Tanzania for two years, including sponsoring 30-50 students in the country to study French.
This was said in Dar es Salaam yesterday by French Ambassador to Tanzania Frederic Clavier while in the company of fellow envoys from Switzerland, Comoros, Morocco, Canada, Belgium and the DRC at a meeting to mark the 50th anniversary of French speaking countries (Francophone countries).
He said the programme would be implemented in the 2020/21 fiscal year according to the direction of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology for tutors teaching the language in institutions.
The envoy said in Tanzania there were also institutions like Alliance Française in Dar es Salam, Arusha and Zanzibar, where every year 1,500 students learnt the language, besides Dar es Salaam University College of Education (DUCE), which also started it in 2018 to sharpen its students/teachers, who then went to teach in primary and secondary schools as well as in other high learning institutions.
“In the fiscal year (2020/21) we have also targeted to train about 100 teachers,” he said during an event to announce the 50th anniversary of the Internal Organisation of Francophonie (OIF).
He was of a view that, the spread of French language would facilitate communication and increase the volume of investments in the country from Francophone countries.
“French is the fourth on a list of the most used languages on the internet. So, it will facilitate communication.
The ability to speak more than one international language will provide Tanzanians with more employment opportunities,” he said, adding that they had invited the government of Tanzania to be an observer of OIF.
Present at the event, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Morocco to Tanzania Abdelilah Benryane, who is the Vice-President of the organization, assured the commitment of OIF to working closely with Tanzania in all aspects of cooperation.
“We have found that people should start to be taught French at the grassroots so that they won’t struggle when they reach university level,” he noted adding, that it was crucial for people to master more than one language.
As of now, about 1.5 million Tanzanians are proficient in French, which is the only foreign language other than English to be offered as an option through the school curriculum.
To mark the anniversary, this year the organisation will organise two weeks of cultural events from March 17-28 to celebrate their presence in Tanzania.
A list of members of the French speaking countries in Tanzania has France, Belgium, Canada, Egypt, Morocco, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, Switzerland, Comoro Islands (Comoros), Burundi and Vietnam.
