French Language Lessons to be Expanded in Uganda

The French Ambassador to Uganda His Excellency Jules Armand Aniambossou has revealed that the French embassy is currently working to expand learning and teaching of the French language in Uganda.

The Embassy among others intends to facilitate training of more teachers of French in all the regions of Uganda, offer scholarships to students and introduce inter University exchange programs with the objective of promoting French.

Aniambossou made the revelation yesterday at Kabale University during his visit to the University to assess the needs of the institution and the region at large in terms of quality French language teaching and learning.

The Ambassador noted that Uganda is surrounded by Francophone countries giving the example of Kigezi region which borders Rwanda and DRC which are all French speaking countries.

He encouraged Ugandans to learn French to take full advantage of associated opportunities like jobs and education opportunities, intervention in peace missions and culture diversity among other opportunities.

In Uganda today, according to the ambassador, there are over 6500 learners of the French language, with 890 learners in Primary, 4460 at Secondary and 1156 at Universities. He however said that the 6500 learners are only taught by 405 teachers.

As such, he said, a lot needs to be done to improve the learning situation.

Prof. Rev. Canon. Emmanuel Muranga the Kabale University Director Institute of Language Studies said that lack of enough learning materials like text books and few qualified language lecturers at the University has hindered the teaching of a number of languages especially French.

James Murangira the Kabale University ICT Director said that abject poverty among many parents in Uganda has also threatened the adaptation of modern learning methods and teaching of languages at the University. He said many ICT learners at the University are unable to buy learning equipment like computers.

The Ambassador was accompanied by Karim Cwinya’ay, the acting Course Coordinator Alliance Francaise de Kampala, a team from the Embassy of France, Bonjour Kampala web radio and the Association of Teachers of French in Uganda (APFO) among other guests.