Education Ministry Is Looking To Suspend Teaching French At Kuwait University

The education ministry in Kuwait is looking into suspending the teaching of French at the University of Kuwait and the Public Authority for Applied Education and Training amid reports that graduates did not meet the required linguistic skills criteria.The ministry will maintain the suspension until the whole French acquisition system in Kuwait is duly assessed and overhauled.

“The programme must be evaluated carefully and then restructured in an integrated manner in order to remedy the existing problems in the curriculum, particularly that the graduation of weak teachers will reflect negatively on the students and will disrupt the educational process,” a source at the ministry said, quoted by Kuwaiti daily Al Rai on Sunday.The Ministry of Education this year hired 14 female graduates in French Studies as teacher trainees and assigned them to different schools.

However, Manal Omar, the general supervisor of French, said that the teacher trainees were “very weak in all French language skills, including grammar, syntax, oral and written expression, vocabulary and conjugation.” “The trainees also made frequent mistakes in their pronunciation and were unable to reach the level of holding a conversation in French.They could not rely on themselves to present lessons,” Manal said in her report to the assistant undersecretary for public education lessons.

The trainees had problems discerning right from wrong while correcting the students’ assignments, which forced teachers in the French departments to fix the trainees’ mistakes and avoid confusing situations, the report added.Some of the trainees said that they had been forced to take up French in college after they refused to study English or Physical Education.

Proposals mentioned in the report to improve the teaching of the French language in Kuwait included the suspension of admissions in colleges until the curricula and the programme are properly reviewed and restructured, conducting personal interviews in French and sitting for written tests.Those who want to specialise in French at the university must have studied at least 200 hours of French before their graduation from high school and must have attended dedicated courses to receive French-accredited diplomas from A1 to C2.

French courses should be given in French and not in Arabic and English as is currently the case, the report said.France in 2012 set up the French Institute in Kuwait to “open a new chapter in the cultural relations between the two countries initiated more than 40 years ago.”The institute aims to promote the French language and culture, facilitate cultural exchanges, collaborate with Kuwaiti institutions working closely with French administrations, and encourage the enrolment in advanced studies in France or in French language

SOURCE : GULFNEWS

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