Foreign Languages to play a more critical role in development
DPI, Guyana, Wednesday, June 6, 2018
As Guyana further develops and welcomes a wave of tourists, Foreign Exchange students, international investors and developers, the University of Guyana recognises the need for its graduates to be proficient in a second language.
The School of Entrepreneurship and Business Innovations (SEBI), is the first UG faculty that has made it mandatory for its graduates to speak another language.
Dr. Barbara Reynolds, Deputy Vice Chancellor- Planning and International Engagement, UG.
Degree programmes in International Relations and Communications also require graduates to also learn a foreign language. Secondary school level teachers within the Education and Humanities Faculty at UG have always had the foreign languages as part of their suite of competencies.
Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Barbara Reynolds, told DPI, “while speaking with the Director of our School of Dentistry, they’re looking at requiring Spanish or Portuguese so that when dentists in Guyana have to provide a service to people who speak a second language, they’re able to do so.”
“We had a visit from the registrar of CXC a couple of weeks ago and when I posed the question to him he affirmed that very shortly CXC will be examining Dutch, which is great. So that’s a plus for us. We want to also be ready so that we are able to provide teachers in the secondary school system who are fluent in those languages”, Reynolds said.
The University of Guyana is central to national development and believes that ensuring students learn a second language is one step towards greater development.
By: Nateshia Isaacs.
Image: Jules Gibson.