KAMPALA- In a bid to improve quality learning of the French language through out the country, the French Embassy has launched the FEF project worth ( 288,000) Euros approximately Ugx (1,123, 7760,000) with the aim of promoting French among the students, teachers and the schools.
Eric Touze, director Alliance Francais de Kampala said they are thrilled to be apart of the project that will not only increase the number of new French speakers but inspire a generation of educators and learners and looking forward to working together for the next two years with all the partners.
Cyril Maman, head of cultural affairs, French Embassy noted that Francophone is thriving in Uganda and it is being embraced at various levels.
“French fosters regional cohesion, unity , cultural bridge and development though there are challenges of teaching French in Uganda that include; access to resources, inequality and many others. In 2020, we announced new modern technologies with focus on french as a professional driver of development and a base for global cooperation” Cyril added.
Louise Bay, cultural affairs department , French Embassy, stressed that promoting french language in the way was born with a clear need to appreciate multilingualism with french in particular.
She also explained that they have have about 50, 000 speakers of French in Uganda and this is a big number and are looking forward to having many because of the current dynamics.
Bay highlighted that the project started 2 years and they are willing to make this possible and with the funding, they shall focus on modern, professional teaching, capacity building, learning tools, cultural activities and others.
Pauline Dinet , AFK, head of courses, asserted that they are going to 20 schools across the country and they shall give 15 schools awards and this will depend on the efforts that they put in.
“We have so far visited four with such as Seeta, Mbarara, Arua and Kitante with the activities. We are making speaking of the language fun and interesting and also seen the teachers are getting encouraged and motivated with some of our tools such as pod casts and others.
The President of Association of French Teachers, Dr. Agatha Tumwine said that they are going to train teachers on the lower side since it is an optional subject.
“The first training was in Kampala and going to move to other regions, Lira in December and Kamonkoli in Jan and then others.
We had CALUFU in Seeta and western Uganda in Kasese this September with northern and eastern coming soon.
With these we are moving learning out side the classes, had an International teachers conference this year. We also have cultural activities and teachers day celebrations” Tumwine added.
