Plans to offer French, Italian and German as second language electives at public schools from grade 7 are in motion, as the government looks to bring Egyptian public school education in line with global development goals, sources at the Education Ministry told Enterprise. We spoke with officials at the Education Ministry and French and German embassies to find out how they are boosting the teaching of foreign languages at Egyptian public schools.

Expect changes next academic year: The new curriculum will not be implemented until the 2024-2025 academic year, giving the ministry time to develop the necessary infrastructure in schools to teach the languages and to make sure that the teachers are qualified prior to implementation, our sources at the ministry confirmed. A “large number of teachers” have been invited to attend the AUC’s one-year qualification program through an educational scholarship, our sources said.

More details to come: While the programs are still in their early stages and details on the nature of the curricula are still being ironed out, specialized committees of foreign language teaching advisors from the Education Ministry will set the general framework for the implementation of teaching foreign languages. The ministry has a plan to hire close to 30k new public school teachers to bridge the deficit in all educational subjects, including new languages, according to our sources.

Sprichst du Deutsch? Offering German in public schools meets an existing demand, as an attractive location for Egyptian students and job-hunters, an official at the German Embassy told Enterprise, with the provision of German in public schools reducing financial barriers and expanding Egyptian student’s access to language.

Where teachers are going for German-language teaching skills: The Goethe Institut(GI) offers in-service training for practicing Egyptian German teachers, as part of a cooperation between the Egyptian Education Ministry to boost German-language education at public schools. Teachers can follow the GI’s worldwide DLL teacher training program, which consists of six modules over an eight-week period of online and self-study through the GI learning platform.

Public-sector focused learning: The GI also trains in-service teachers from six public sector schools through the German Foreign Offices’ initiative, Schools: Partners for the Future (PASCH), launched in 2008. The curriculum follows didactic topics preparing students for the Goethe-Institut examinations at the GI locations in Cairo and Alexandria.

Funding is up for grabs: GI scholarships are on offer for teachers to enhance their German language skills, as are PASCH scholarships for language learning. Egyptian teachers working at public schools are eligible for full scholarships for the teacher training course at the institute and a 75% scholarship for the language courses, provided through the GI’s Bildungskooperation Deutsch project. PASCH also provides scholarships for language training and funds in-service teacher training.

German-language resources are provided through a joint project between the Education Ministry, GI and German publisher Hueber Verlag, whose language books have been adapted to match an Egyptian public school criteria, at the cost of “a few hundred EUR per year,” the embassy official said.

Peut-être français? The French Development Agency signed an agreement in 2020 with the government to support French-language teaching in Egyptian public schools through a consortium of French public operators — France Éducation International, Institut français d’Égypte and Réseau Canopé — an official at the French Embassy told Enterprise. The project, known as TrèFle, will develop a curriculum and assessment and evaluation framework for teaching French as a second language in public schools and train some 13k French teachers and inspectors, refining their professional skills including digital literacy.

Language resources included: TrèFle also plans to provide complementary educational resources for students and teachers and is creating brand-new textbooks and teachers’ guides for six levels that are expected to be used in all Egyptian public schools starting from the 2024-25 academic year. The resources will provide “up-to-date” methods and cultural approaches to language learning, the product of a collaboration between French and Egyptian experts. An additional 500+ hours of online learning will be available on the Education Ministry’s training platforms.

TrèFle is underway: The project has already trained some 500 teachers and supervisors from across Egypt in pedagogy and linguistics over the last eighteen months, to the point that the individuals are able to pass the International French Language Diploma (DELF or DALF). The first DELF results from November 2022 had a 96% success rate, the embassy official said.

Domino effect: Trained teachers become mentors and trainers for the new 13k teachers that TrèFle wants to train this year. If the rollout of the project is successful, all French teachers from Egyptian public schools will have benefited from the training and had their skill sets updated by 2024. Plus, by training Egyptian teachers rather than sending substitutes from France, the project centers the creation of a sustainable teaching practice for the French language in public schools.

French-funded: The officer declined to disclose the cost to train one school teacher in the TrèFle project in Egypt or the cost of providing educational resources to one school. However, they added that AFD is the sole funder of the projects, which aligns with France’s implementation of sustainable development and international solidarity policies.

Why French? “Egypt is a country with a long French-speaking tradition,” and it is currently the only language taught in all the public schools across the 27 governorates, the officer said. Over 160 French companies have a significant presence in Egypt, meaning that proficiency in French enhances employability within Egypt and opens up options for the youth across the region.

That’s not all: Public schools could see Chinese-language options added to the curriculum and the Italian Embassy is in the process of signing an MoU with the Education Ministry to support the introduction of Italian as a language option at public schools, various statements from the ministry have said. Meanwhile, Russian could also be announced after talks between the two countries’ Education Ministries, reports Ahram Online.

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