The Diplomat
The Secretary General of the Instituto Cervantes, Carmen Noguero, and senior officials from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Education and Universities made a working trip to Ivory Coast last week to coordinate activities to promote Spanish and strengthen the teaching of our language.
Ivory Coast is the sub-Saharan African country with the largest number of students of Spanish, with almost 600,000 students in secondary education and some 3,000 in higher education, according to data from the Instituto Cervantes. Over the course of three days, the Spanish delegation participated in meetings and signed agreements to strengthen cooperation.
The delegation took part in the inauguration of a training course for 150 Spanish teachers and visited a public school to see the strength of Spanish in secondary education. In the Ivorian education system, Spanish is an optional language and there are some 3,000 teachers in public and private schools. Likewise, during the working visit, it was announced the launching of a training program for Ivorian teachers of Spanish as a foreign language in Spain, which is co-organized by the Instituto Cervantes, the General Directorate of Spanish in the World, the City Council of Alcalá de Henares (Madrid) and Casa África.
The Spanish representatives also raised the possible organization of the fair Study in Spain in the first half of 2023 to promote the attraction of Ivorian students to Spain within the framework of the Erasmus + program and agreements between Spanish and Ivorian universities. Agreements of understanding between the two countries and the development of the Ivory Coast’s national program on cultural industries and the enhancement of its cultural heritage were also prepared.
Since 2021, the Instituto Cervantes has a classroom in Abidjan, the Ivorian capital, and has organized, in collaboration with AECID, three editions of academic conferences for the training of teachers of Spanish as a foreign language: in 2015, 2017 and 2019.
Students of Spanish in Sub-Saharan Africa now account for 6.5% of the more than 24 million students of Spanish as a foreign language (ELE) worldwide. Of the fifteen countries with the most students of Spanish, five are African, with Ivory Coast leading the way ahead of countries such as Benin, Senegal and Cameroon. In addition, Spanish is a key vector of the important current of sympathy of the sub-Saharan African population towards Spain and its culture.
In addition to the Secretary General of the Instituto Cervantes, Carmen Noguero, the Spanish delegation included the Director General of Spanish in the World of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Guillermo Escribano; the Deputy Director General of the Foreign Educational Action Unit of the Ministry of Education, Andrés Contreras; and the technical advisor of the internationalization unit of the Spanish Service of the Ministry of Universities. The Ivorian Ministers of Education and Culture and the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research took part in the various working meetings.
