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By Hadi Fornaji.
Tripoli, 18 April 2103:
Seven hundred Libyans arrived in France between 10 and 16 April as part of a programme . . .[restrict]to train 300 of them as French-language teachers. The other 400 are members of their families who will be staying with them while they are studying in France for the next the 12 months.
The group, from all over Libya are spread in 26 different centres for training French-language teachers – in Angers, Annecy, Besançon, Bordeaux, Brest, Caen, Cannes, La Rochelle, Marseilles, Montpellier, Paris, Perpignan, Nice, Rambouillet, Rouen, Royan, Strasbourg, Toulouse, Valence and Vichy.
Most of the 300. who have studied French at Libyan universities, have been unable to find a proper job. Once trained ,they will be employed as teachers of French in Libyan schools run by the Ministry of Education.
During the year-long course, the future teachers will be:
- Trained in the French language;
- Introduced to the teaching of French.
In addition, they will be introduced to various aspects of French culture.
Funded by the Libyan Ministry of Labour and Rehabilitation, the programme is being implemented by the French public agency Campus France. It is responsible for the promotion of higher education, and looking after foreign students and teachers in France.
This programme under which the 300 are being trained has two main objectives:
- The development of teaching foreign languages in Libya;
- The provision of training and employment opportunities for young Libyans, including former revolutionaries.
For students from Benghazi, there was a moment when it seemed that they might never get to France. Last Friday, a flight carrying some 150 of them and their families from Benghazi to Paris was ordered back to Libya because of a flight path blunder by Afriqiyah Airways. But in the end they made it, albeit many hours late, to France.
This new education and French-language tranining partnership between France and Libya was the result of an agreement betweeny the Minister of Labour and Rehabilitation and the Ambassador of France in Libya acting on behalf of Campus France.
This programme is expected to grow. The Ministry of Labour and Rehabilitation plans to send two other groups of 300 people for similar training, one next year and the third in 2015. It will produce 900 Libyan French-language teachers who will have been able to make a career out of the subject.
The programme indicates that the two countries are committed to long term cultural and linguistic cooperation.
Meanwhile, according to the French embassy, intensive training programmess in France for smaller groups (15-50 people) in vocational training at the university level are also underway. [/restrict]
