The governments of Kenya and South Africa have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that will provide a foundation for the introduction of the teaching of Kiswahili in the South African educational system.
Cabinet Secretary for Education, George Magoha signed the agreement on behalf of Kenya while South Africa Minister Basic Education Mrs. Angelina Matsie Motshekga signed on behalf of South Africa.
The agreement will also provide the basis for Kenya to share technical capabilities in Education, apart from extending Kiswahili language into the South African lingua franca.
Magoha said the MoU will strengthen the cordial relations between Kenya and South Africa, saying Kiswahili aspect of the agreement will forge stronger links between the peoples of the two countries.
He said many Kenyans were training in Medicine and other disciplines in South African Universities, saying the mutual exchange of intellectual capital was beneficial to the two counties.
Mrs. Motshekga said that that about 40 percent of learners in South African learners speak Kiswahili.
She noted that the MoU will make it possible for learners in South African to take up Kiswahili as and optional language besides French and Portuguese languages.
Kiswahili, is a Bantu language and the first language of the Swahili people.
It is a lingua franca of the African Great Lakes region and other parts of eastern and south-eastern Africa, including Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Mozambique, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
There are an estimated 100 million Kiswahili speakers in the region.
JK/as/APA