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rwandaexpress
Rwandan pupils in class
The use of the English language in Rwanda has become essential mode of communication, after the former francophone nation joined the ‘English club’ in the East Africa community and Commonwealth.
From the time English was introduced as an official language, many Rwandans have taken the initiative of catching up with the changing trends, which has seen most people enroll for English classes, so as to use it use in their daily activities especially in education and business.
There is little doubt English is encroaching on French influence, not only because it is the language of business in Europe but because of the economic power of South Africa.
In education, over the last three years, Rwanda’s schools have undergone a lightning quick linguistic transformation process.
Currently, all public students throughout Rwanda, at the primary, secondary and university levels are having English as a medium language of instruction.
“Even though there are teachers that give notes in English but continue to teach in French. But we try our best. We understand the need to shift” said Christien Niyomugabo, a student in Kigali city.
When interviewed, a director general within the ministry of education, said that English is the language of the global business world — one in which Rwanda strives to be competitive. “When we look worldwide, English is spoken more than French,” he added. “Our children are going to travel the world, import and export. This is an economic issue. We don’t want them being isolated.”
It is for the same reason the Government of Rwanda decided to recruit English language teachers from the East African Community region instead of single-sourcing them exclusively from Kenya as earlier planned.
According to the State minister in charge of Primary and Secondary Education Dr. Mathias Harebamungu, the government had, through the Rwanda Education Board (REB), decided to recruit from the EAC countries to strengthen regional integration.
The drive to recruit the 4,000 teachers was announced in October last year as part of the government’s efforts to improve the use of English in the education system. However, by February 2012 the initiative had stalled due to the decision to expand the recruitment to include other EAC member countries.
Apart from Burundi where French is widely used in schools and official transactions, the rest of the region; Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya use English in education and official business.
“We are going to recruit 250 teachers at the initial stage but the process will continue. We wrote to the embassies of Kenya and Uganda to help us in the recruitment process,” he told The New Times.
The teachers are being recruited to train their Rwandan counterparts how to improve their proficiency in English, both spoken and written.
The ministry intends to send at least one teacher to every school (both primary and secondary) across the country. Each will be responsible for training teachers in the English subject.
This is part of the implementation of the government policy of using English as the language of instruction at all levels of education in the country.
The reason behind the move was explained by the government, as being the general global trend, where English is becoming a dominant language of business to the detriment of French.
Rwanda has also joined the Commonwealth Club, largely made up of former colonies of the British Empire.
The use of the English language also makes it easier for Rwandans to compete for employment and education opportunities with the rest of both the EAC and the Common Market of Eastern and Southern African (COMESA). Rwanda also has French and Kinyarwanda as the official languages. French is now taught as one of the subjects in classes.
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