30 April 2008
The Gambia's government has just received a €800,000 donation from the French government to support the teaching of French in many schools around the country.
Although Gambia's official language is English, being a former British colony, French is extremely important to this small country surrounded by French speaking countries, for trade and tourism which represent an important part of their economy.
Gambia is also home to some 300,000 French speakers or 25 per cent of the total population, according to the French Foreign Affairs department website.
The promotion of the French language in the Gambia's education sector will involve training more French teachers and developing a bilingual attitude in every day life.
France also intends to give more support to the French radio programmes and written press and is also thinking of creating a new radio station called Franco-Gambian Alliance.
The French government is a long-lasting supporter of the Gambian education and the new project called Anchor Francophone is to last for 36 months.
