France seeks to strengthen teaching of Arabic

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Taroudant, Morocco- French Minister of Education Vincent Peillon announced Thursday, February 13 in Aix-en-Provence that the ministry would provide further means for the development of Arabic language and culture education, “to meet the expectations of the youth on the other side of the Mediterranean.”

Hosted at Lycée Paul Cézanne, which offers a trial section for Mediterranean languages and cultures, the Minister of Education reiterated the importance of learning the regional languages and Arabic.

“Arabic is one of the major languages of globalization, it is the fifth spoken language in the world, but it is not taught. We must address this anomaly,” Peillon said.

The Ministry will create more jobs for Arabic teachers and will double the number of specific sections called “Mediterranean languages and cultures” and “Oriental” in schools and colleges within three years.

“We will double the number of Oriental sections in the next three years,” said the minister.

During his visit to Lycée Paul Cézanne, the minister renewed the three-year agreement between his ministry and the the Institut du Monde Arabe, which will provide educational resources.

“The developments are largely on the other side of the Mediterranean, this is where the youth is waiting. The Chinese and Brazilians are going to invest in these areas, and we who have this shared richness of the Mediterranean, would be absent for ideological reasons? This is madness!” the minister said.

Edited by Jessica Rohan