APA-Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire) – On Tuesday 28 May 2024, Côte d’Ivoire and Spain signed a memorandum of
understanding aimed at improving the quality of education provision in the West African country.
Côte d’Ivoire’s Minister of National Education and Literacy, Professor Mariatou Kone, and Spain’s Secretary of State to the Minister of Education, Vocational Training and Sport, Jose Manuel Bar Cendor, initialled the memorandum in Abidjan.
Receiving the Spanish official at her office in Abidjan, Professor Kone pointed out that Côte d’Ivoire has 5,047 Spanish teachers for 894,304 pupils.
The aim of the agreement, entitled “Memorandum of Understanding in the field of non-university education,” is to strengthen and improve the teaching of Spanish in the Ivorian education system.
Ms. Kone unveiled the terms of this cooperation, which cover the sharing of good teaching practices, capacity-building for teachers and the organisation of language immersion trips.
The memorandum also mentions participation in training activities for Ivorian teachers, the organisation of joint seminars, conferences and symposia, and the development of teaching and learning materials.
There are also plans to develop multimedia equipment, as well as other initiatives such as scholarships, donations and in-service training. In her opinion, all these actions are aimed at improving the quality of Spanish language teaching in Côte d’Ivoire.
The Spanish official praised this long-standing collaboration. Spanish has been taught in the Ivorian education system since the 1940s.
Jose Manuel Bar Cendor stated that Ivorian teachers will be able to travel to Spain to share their knowledge. They will be hosted by families in Spain, where they will share their linguistic cultures.
The Secretary of State pointed out that the conversation assistance programmes in French classes in Spain are part of the memorandum, as are immersion trips for Ivorian teachers and students to the European country.
This will resume next year and “I am sure that it will be a very fruitful collaboration” between the two countries, said Jose Manuel Bar Cendor.
Côte d’Ivoire has an association of secondary school Spanish teachers and 100 Spanish clubs.
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