![]() ![]() The two share security interests over the political upheavals shaping contemporary West Africa. The expansion of English language learning comes as tensions increasingly flare between France and Algeria. But at that time, French-speaking factions in Algeria had a lot of decision-making power in institutions.” “We should have introduced English in primary schools when President (Abdelaziz) Bouteflika laid out his reform after coming to power in 1991. Previous leaders also tried to expand English but failed to overcome the French-educated elites who had long wielded power in the country. The current initiative was launched by Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, who came to power in 2019. Retired high school principal Mohammed Arezki Ferdi believes Algeria should have begun the shift to English decades ago. Its officials frame English classes as a practical rather than political shift, noting the language’s importance in scientific and technical fields.īut questions about France’s position in Algerian society have long been polarizing, as teachers and former education policy officials acknowledge. According to the International Organization of the French Language, nearly 15 million out of the country’s 44 million speak it. This year, neighboring Mali changed its constitution to remove French from its list of official languages, and Morocco made English classes compulsory in high schools.Īlgeria has more French speakers than all but two nations - France itself and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. ![]() As France’s economic and political influence wanes throughout Africa, Algeria is among a longer list of countries gradually transitioning toward English as their primary foreign language. “Teaching English is a strategic choice in the country’s new education policy,” Education Minister Abdelkrim Belabed said last week, lauding the move as an immense success.Įnglish is the world’s most widely spoken language, accounts for the majority of content on the internet, and remains a lingua franca in business and science. Additionally, the government is strengthening enforcement of a preexisting law against private schools that operate primarily in French. Students returning to third and fourth-grade classrooms this fall will participate in two 45-minute English classes each week as the country creates new teacher training programs at universities and eyes more transformational changes in the years ahead. ALGIERS: More than a year after Algeria launched a pilot program to teach English in elementary schools, the country is hailing it as a success and expanding it in a move that reflects a widening linguistic shift underway in former French colonies throughout Africa. ![]()
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