Over 5,000 teachers could benefit from Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF)-funded initiative to improve French language teaching in Rwanda, an official from Rwanda Basic Education Board (REB) has estimated.

Leon Mugenzi, the Head of Teacher Development, Management, Career Guidance and Counselling Department at REB, made the revelation after receiving 45 foreign French language teachers deployed by OIF to train Rwandan teachers for a one-year renewable term.

The move is part of a broader plan by the organisation to send up to 100 teachers to Rwanda over the next two years.

OIF aims to enhance French language teaching in member states.

The first cohort of 25 teachers was deployed in Rwanda in 2020.

The second cohort of teachers comes from Benin, Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Burkina Faso, Gabon, Cameroon, DR Congo, Burundi, Guinea, Togo and France.

Under the "mobility project”, initiated by Secretary General Louise Mushikiwabo, OIF recruits and sends teachers of French to its member countries which expressed the need to boost the language’s position in the community.

Mugenzi said that in addition to placing the trainers in Teacher Training Colleges (TTCs), they will also reach out to different schools across the country.

They will both teach French to students and train fellow teachers.

This, he said, will help to produce graduates who can compete in the global job market.

"The teachers to train fellow teachers are coming from Francophone countries. They are going to help improve the skills of our teachers who are teaching French in different schools across the country,” Mugenzi said, disclosing that at least Rwf1 billion will be invested in this programme.

French language back in lower primary school

Mugenzi said that the teachers will also help in upgrading the French language teaching programme in lower primary.

"We plan to start teaching the French language from primary one in all public schools. The support from OIF to train teachers is welcome because some of our teachers didn’t study French well,” he said.

Apart from Teacher Training Colleges, we have over 5,000 schools across the country and each school has at least one French language teacher who is in need of upgraded skills, he added.

"By the end of the programme we will have known the exact number of teachers who have benefited,” he said.

French language back in national exams

Gaspard Twagirayezu, the Minister of State in charge of Primary and Secondary Education in the Ministry of Education, said that the OIF-supported programme will also help in the preparation of the assessment of the French language in schools including national exams.

"We have developed a national plan under the support of OIF to teach the French language and how to assess it. In the coming years, we will start to examine the French language in national exams. We need first to build teachers’ capacity and the teaching system,” he said without disclosing when this could exactly be implemented.

The 4-year plan, funded by the French Development Agency (AFD), intends to reinforce French teaching at all education levels in Rwanda, starting with the academic year 2022/2023, which begins in September, at a funding of Rwf5.7 billion.

Twagirayezu reiterated that the diversification of languages in Rwanda will expose Rwandans to the international labour market and boost cooperation with French speaking nations.

Nivine Khaled, the French language and French culture diversity Director at OIF, said that the deployed teachers, besides helping in improving the quality of teaching the French language, will also have to explain the value of the language in economic development.

Joelle Anita Embollo, another trainer, said: "I am ready to share my knowledge and experience with my fellow Rwandan teachers in teaching the French language. We will examine the gaps and do our best to improve them,” she said.

She added; "I think the teaching methods are there but need to get a bit of boost because French is not strange in Rwanda. The French language exposes people to the world of professionals in Francophone countries among other opportunities and advantages.”

Emiace Tepi, one of the teachers deployed to Rwanda, said, "The language helps in exchanging economic and research opportunities. I trained teachers in Cameroon and we will share experience in Teacher Training Colleges.”