‘Good morning, teacher!’ Senegal introduces English in nursery schools

In the pilot schools, English is taught every Tuesday and Thursday — two lessons in nursery and two lessons in primary schools. (AFP)
Short Url
Updated 10 February 2025
Follow

‘Good morning, teacher!’ Senegal introduces English in nursery schools

DAKAR: “Good morning, teacher!” a chorus of Senegalese five-year-olds responded at a school where English has been introduced alongside the official language of French.

The pupils at the nursery school near central Dakar repeated the English words out loud.

“They’re interested in the lesson, and they start a conversation with ‘how are you?’” teacher Absa Ndiaye said.

Hers is one of more than 600 classes in Senegal that have been testing a new program of teaching English in nursery and primary schools since mid-January in a push for better connectivity with the wider world.

The developing country, which has seen a massive youth boom but also an exodus of young people searching for a better life, has recently become an oil and gas producer.

Senegal is a member of the Francophonie group of French-speaking nations and uses French in public schools and in administration.

Students also learn Arabic and the country’s national languages.

Until recently, English was only taught in public high schools and universities, although it is sometimes taught from nursery school onwards in the private sector.

President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, who was elected in March on a nationalist ticket, is trying to recalibrate Senegal’s relationship with former colonial power France after decades of strong ties, without breaking away altogether.

Senegal will remain “the steadfast and reliable ally” of all its foreign partners, Faye announced, emphasising his desire to widen Senegal’s prospects.

Despite seven years of teaching, “students can barely communicate properly in English,” lamented Aissatou Sarr Cisse, who is in charge of the Education Ministry’s English program.

“We’re starting from a younger age so that they can improve their language skills.

“The aim is to shape people who are open to the world. Mastering English will give them access to opportunities and facilitate better collaboration with Senegal’s partners,” she said.

In the pilot schools, English is taught every Tuesday and Thursday — two lessons of 25 minutes each in nursery and two 30-minute lessons in primary schools.

The subjects taught include family, colors, everyday greetings, the environment and the weather.

Teacher Mamadou Kama listens to a conversation in English between two 13-year-olds in his class of around 60 at a primary school in Dakar’s working-class Medina neighborhood.

“I can see that the students are motivated. Some of them are asking for English lessons to be (taught) every day,” Kama, who has a degree in English, said.

Most of the teachers have not yet received the digital teaching materials the ministry is meant to provide, but Kama has tablets, video projectors and USB sticks given by the school’s management.

“We haven’t had the time to create handbooks. Computers have been ordered, and in the meantime, we have provided students with printed documents with fun pictures,” Cisse, from the education ministry, said.

The ministry has “invested in teachers who are proficient in English” and have been selected and trained after an application process, Cisse added.

The initiative has been praised by Ousmane Sene, director of the Dakar-based West African Research Center, which handles academic exchanges between US and west African universities.

“English is the most common language at an international level and it’s the most used language in diplomacy and international cooperation, so it’s an additional asset,” Sene said.

Additionally, the bulk of “global scientific output is written in English. If Senegal doesn’t adapt to this way of accessing knowledge, there will be an epistemological wall,” said his university colleague Mathiam Thiam, who was involved in creating the program.

But Sene said there was a “prerequisite — to train and equip the teachers well.”

Opponents of the scheme have criticized a shortfall in teachers.

“On these grounds alone, introducing English at nursery and primary school levels is a pipe dream, it’s impossible,” former member of parliament and retired teacher Samba Dioulde Thiam wrote in an opinion column.

“Is the aim to compete with French? Is the aim to flatter the Anglo-Saxons who dominate this planet and get them to give us resources?” Thiam wrote.

He pointed out that intellectuals have been demanding the introduction of Senegal’s national languages in education for many years which risks being “postponed indefinitely.”

Despite problems with training, Mathiam Thiam said “doctoral students are among the teachers who have been chosen.”

Former Education Minister Serigne Mbaye Thiam said that before launching the program, “it would have been wise to understand why Senegalese students who study English throughout high school struggle to reach the level required.”

Far from the controversy, though, Aissatou Barry, 13, said she “can’t wait to study English in sixth grade.”


Georgia court rejects jailed ex-president Saakashvili’s appeal

Updated 2 sec ago
Follow

Georgia court rejects jailed ex-president Saakashvili’s appeal

Saakashvili, 57, was sentenced in multiple cases to a combined 12 years and six months
“The Tbilisi court of appeals upheld the verdict,” his lawyer Beka Basilaia told journalists

TBILISI: A Georgian court on Tuesday rejected an appeal by jailed ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili against a prison sentence that he and his backers see as political retribution by his opponents.

The pro-Western reformist politician, who ruled the Caucasus country from 2004 to 2013, was arrested in 2021 after returning to Georgia from exile in Ukraine in the back of a dairy truck.

Saakashvili, 57, was sentenced in multiple cases to a combined 12 years and six months earlier this year, charged with misuse of public funds and illegally crossing Georgia’s border.

“The Tbilisi court of appeals upheld the verdict,” his lawyer Beka Basilaia told journalists on Tuesday.

The sole appeal had been against a four-and-a-half-year sentence for the illegal border crossing.

Basilaia criticized what he called an “unprecedented” move by the court not to conduct an oral hearing as part of the appeal.

Saakashvili and rights groups have denounced his prosecution as a political move by the ruling Georgian Dream party, which has been accused of democratic backsliding and growing rapprochement with Moscow.

Saakashvili has been held in a civilian hospital since 2022, when he staged a 50-day hunger strike in protest at his detention.

The European Parliament has called for his immediate release.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of “killing” Saakashvili “at the hands of the Georgian authorities.”

Zelensky granted Saakashvili Ukrainian citizenship and named him one of his top advisers in 2019.

Georgia and Russia fought a short war in 2008 — while Saakashvili was president — for control of breakaway Georgian territories.

The European Union and the United States have urged Georgia to ensure Saakashvili is provided medical treatment and that his rights are protected.

The Council of Europe rights watchdog has branded him a “political prisoner,” while Amnesty International has called his treatment “apparent political revenge.”

Georgian authorities have also jailed several former Saakashvili officials, in what rights groups have described as a political witch-hunt.

‘Kyiv should be ours’: Russians boosted after Putin-Trump call

Updated 29 min 52 sec ago
Follow

‘Kyiv should be ours’: Russians boosted after Putin-Trump call

  • “I am rooting for our country, I love it very much and I just want Vladimir Vladimirovich (Putin) to just, after all, get justice done,” Anastasia told AFP
  • Asked what her main feeling was following the talks, pensioner Sofiya said: “Uncertainty“

MOSCOW: A day after Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump spoke by phone on Ukraine, showering each other with compliments, Russian home-maker Anastasia had one wish: for Moscow to finish what it started in 2022.

In the fourth spring of Moscow’s devastating offensive, which has killed tens of thousands, diplomatic movement in recent days has given Russians a boost in confidence that victory — in some shape or another — is approaching.

In the call with Trump on Monday, the Russian leader once again brushed off calls for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine, as demanded by the West and Kyiv.

Despite that, the US president said the “tone” of the conversation was “excellent.”

Russia controls a fifth of Ukraine and holds an upper hand on the battlefield.

“I am rooting for our country, I love it very much and I just want Vladimir Vladimirovich (Putin) to just, after all, get justice done,” Anastasia told AFP in the Moscow suburbs, echoing official language calling for the defeat of Ukraine.

Not knowing how or when it would happen, the 40-year-old mother, who declined to give her surname, said she was getting impatient.

“I don’t want my children to have to solve this issue. Let’s decide it here and now.”

But she had no trust in Trump — who she said is “just a businessman” who “wants money and nothing else” — and worried the “Anglo-Saxons” will trick Russia.

Putin has shown no sign of scaling down his maximalist demands for ending the Ukraine conflict, seeking little short of capitulation from Kyiv.

At talks in Istanbul last week, Russian negotiators demanded Ukraine abandon territory it still controls in the east and south.

Russia also wants Ukraine barred from NATO and for Western military support to end.

Putin has repeatedly called for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to be removed from office.

Confidence was tinged with uncertainty in Moscow after the Putin-Trump call, in which the Russian leader floated a vague “memorandum” that would outline demands for a peace deal and Trump said Kyiv and Moscow would begin talks swiftly.

Many in Moscow did not know what Trump or Putin meant.

Asked what her main feeling was following the talks, pensioner Sofiya said: “Uncertainty.”

“It’s interesting what will happen to us, not only to our families, but our country,” said the 72-year-old, who declined to give her surname.

Like many, Sofiya saw no real progress from last week’s talks — the first direct negotiations on the conflict in more than three years.

“I don’t know how to express this, but I would like calm and peace,” she said.

Moscow has ramped up military censorship amid its Ukraine offensive, threatening years in prison for those who criticize or question the campaign.

Zelensky said Russia was not serious about talks and is trying to “buy time” to continue its offensive.

Putin was indeed hoping to advance more on the ground and will not “miss the opportunity” for a summer offensive, said Russian analyst Konstantin Kalachev.

He called the Trump call a “tactical victory” for the Russian leader.

“Russia is hoping to push them (Ukrainian forces) this summer,” Kalachev said.

“There will be no peace, while Russia has not yet used the option of a final offensive,” he said, highlighting the prospect of a summer ground campaign.

Though Putin said both sides should be ready to make “compromises,” few were forthcoming from the Kremlin or on the streets of Moscow.

“I believe that Odesa, Kharkiv, Nikolayev (Mykolaiv), Kyiv should be ours,” said another pensioner, 70-year-old Marina, who also declined to give her surname, reeling off a string of Ukrainian cities that Russia has not formally claimed.

Russian state TV said Moscow’s negotiators threatened in Istanbul to seize more land if Ukraine does not pull its troops out of the Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions that Moscow claims to have annexed.

“If the four regions will not be recognized in the nearest future, the next time there will be six regions,” said state TV presenter Yevgeny Popov.

Moscow’s chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky later evoked Russia’s 21-year war with Sweden in the 18th century, hinting Moscow was ready for a long fight.

Marina, too, said she would support Russia to fight on, even as thousands of Russian soldiers have been killed.

“Of course, it is a big shame that our people are also dying,” she told AFP. “But there is no other way.”


Poland to try suspect in alleged Russian plot to assassinate Zelensky

Updated 20 May 2025
Follow

Poland to try suspect in alleged Russian plot to assassinate Zelensky

  • The man, identified as Pawel K., was arrested in April 2024
  • Prosecutors said he had declared his readiness to act for Russia’s military intelligence

WARSAW: Polish authorities have indicted a man charged with planning to help Russian foreign intelligence services prepare a possible attempt to assassinate Ukraine’s president, prosecutors said on Tuesday.

The man, identified as Pawel K., was arrested in April 2024 after cooperation between Polish and Ukrainian prosecutors, and faces up to eight years in prison.

According to prosecutors, he had declared his readiness to act for the military intelligence of the Russian Federation and established contacts with Russians who were directly involved in the war in Ukraine.

“The activities were to help, among other things, in the planning by the Russian special services of a possible assassination attempt on the life of ... the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky,” the prosecution said in a statement.

Pawel K.’s tasks included collecting and providing information on security at the Rzeszow-Jasionka Airport in southeastern Poland, prosecutors said.

Poland, a hub for Western military supplies to Ukraine, says it has become a major target of Russian spies, accusing Moscow and its ally Belarus of trying to destabilize it — accusations which the Kremlin has repeatedly denied.


PKK urges Turkiye to ease leader’s solitary confinement for any peace talks

Updated 20 May 2025
Follow

PKK urges Turkiye to ease leader’s solitary confinement for any peace talks

  • The disbanding mechanisms are unclear yet
  • Hiwa said the PKK has shown “seriousness regarding peace,” but “till now the Turkish state has not given any guarantees”

SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq: The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has said Türkiye should ease prison conditions for its founder Abdullah Ocalan, declaring him the group’s “chief negotiator” for any future talks after a decision to disband.

The Kurdish group, blacklisted by Ankara and its Western allies, announced on May 12 it had adopted a decision to disarm and disband after a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state that cost more than 40,000 lives.

The group’s historic decision came after an appeal by Ocalan, made in a letter from Istanbul’s Imrali prison island where he has been held since 1999.

Zagros Hiwa, spokesman for the PKK’s political wing, told AFP on Monday that “we expect that the Turkish state makes amendments in the solitary confinement conditions” to allow Ocalan “free and secure work conditions so that he could lead the process.”

“Leader Apo is our chief negotiator” for any talks with Türkiye, Hiwa added in an interview, referring to Ocalan.

“Only Leader Apo can lead the practical implementation of the decision taken by the PKK.”

The disbanding mechanisms are unclear yet, but the Turkish government has said it would carefully monitor the process to ensure full implementation.

Hiwa said the PKK has shown “seriousness regarding peace,” but “till now the Turkish state has not given any guarantees and taken any measure for facilitating the process” and continued its “bombardments and artillery shellings” against the Kurdish group’s positions.

The PKK operates rear bases in Iraq’s autonomous northern Kurdistan region, where Türkiye also maintains military bases and often carries out air and ground operations against the Kurdish militants.

Turkish media reports have suggested that militants who had committed no crime on Turkish soil could return without fear of prosecution, but that PKK leaders might be forced into exile or stay behind in Iraq.

Hiwa said the PKK objects to its members or leaders being forced to leave, saying that “real peace requires integration, not exile.”


Second man in court over arson attacks linked to UK PM Starmer

Updated 20 May 2025
Follow

Second man in court over arson attacks linked to UK PM Starmer

  • Neither of the suspects has been charged under terrorism laws or the new National Security Act
  • Police said the first fire involved a Toyota Rav4 car that Starmer used to own

LONDON: A second man to be charged over a series of arson attacks on houses and a car linked to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer appeared in a London court on Tuesday.

Over five days earlier this month, police were called to fires at a house in north London owned by Starmer, another at a property nearby where he used to live, and to a blaze involving a car that also used to belong to the British leader.

Last week, Ukrainian Roman Lavrynovych, 21, was charged in connection with the fires, and on Tuesday Romanian national Stanislav Carpiuc, 26, who was born in Ukraine, appeared in court accused of conspiracy to commit arson with intent to endanger life.

“The alleged offense arises from three fires set at locations linked to the prime minister in the last fortnight,” prosecutor Sarah Przybylska said. “At this stage the alleged offending is unexplained.”

Neither of the suspects has been charged under terrorism laws or the new National Security Act which aims to target hostile state activity.

Police said the first fire involved a Toyota Rav4 car that Starmer used to own. Days later, there was a blaze at a property where Starmer once resided and the following day there was an attack on a house in north London that he still owns.

Starmer, who has lived at his official 10 Downing Street residence in central London since becoming prime minister last July, has called the incidents “an attack on all of us, on our democracy and the values we stand for.”

Wearing a light blue hoodie, Carpiuc, who was arrested on Saturday at London’s Luton Airport, spoke only to confirm his name and address while listening to the proceedings through a translator.

He was remanded in custody until a hearing on June 6 at London’s Old Bailey court when his co-accused Lavrynovych is also due to appear.

The prosecutor said a decision would be taken at this hearing as to whether the case would proceed under the terrorism protocol.

Carpiuc’s lawyer Jay Nutkins said his client had lived in Britain for nine years and had just completed a two-year degree at a university in Canterbury.

“He denies being at the scene of any of these fires,” Nutkins said.


Carpiuc funded himself through construction work, Nutkins said. On a casting website for models and actors, an entry under Carpiuc’s name said he was born in western Ukraine and was seeking work as a model.

On Monday, police arrested a third man in connection with the fires and he remains in police custody.