The adoption of English over French

Dear editor, It make good sense that Rwanda is poised to adopt English as the chief medium of instruction effectively replacing the French language as the main official language, permeating all functional aspects of the nation. For the past 15 years, our country has had to operate in both French and English along with our beloved mother tongue of course. And for all its pros,real or imagined, this duplicity must have presented a huge challenge in time wasting and resource depletion. This duplicity is very difficult to justify in a country that surely has her hands full in way of more urgent needs and priorities. In all consideration to start with, all things being equal, it is best to operate in only one rather than more than one languages. This is a matter of common sense. Once this is established, we can then say that choosing English over French makes more sense on several accounts: First, English is “king” on the global scale of relative importance. Rwandans who will have English will be much more adept to compete for opportunities in the East African sub-region and on the global market. Let us not forget that Rwanda is now a member ofthe East African Community where English prevails and French is a mere abysmal minority in East Africa (spoken in Rwanda and Burundi only). Therefore, Rwanda will be a more fully functional member of this huge economic bloc with English rather than French as our main medium of instruction and business. Therefore, the decision by the Rwandan Parliament to adopt English over French must be hailed as a sound, sensible and pragmatic. All that remains, in my opinion, is to ensure that Rwandans who have been trained in French will be be given themeans to adjust quickly into this transition as the country phases in English. Ontario, Canada

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The adoption of English over French