Tunisia holds first Russian language lessons
Tunisia has become the first country in North Africa to officially recognize Russian as a supplementary language in secondary education, TASS news agency reported on Monday, citing the head of the Russian Center for Science and Culture in Tunis, Yuri Zaitsev.
The first classes of the Center for Open Education and Russian Language, which opened in Tunisia’s capital of Tunis earlier this year, concluded on Saturday, according to Zaitsev.
“In May 2023, the Evseviev Mordovian State Pedagogical University, with the support of the Russian House, opened a Center for Open Education and teaching of the Russian language in Tunisia under the auspices of a grant from the Russian Ministry of Education,” TASS quoted the diplomat as saying.
The two-week-long “lessons and master classes” were conducted by “a group of Russian language teachers from Mordovia’s capital” and included “Tunisian colleagues from lyceums and higher educational institutions, as well as students of the Russian language,” he said.
President Vladimir Putin, in a speech at the Russia-Africa Summit in July, proposed that Russian language schools be established in African countries as a means of improving cooperation between Moscow and the continent.
So far, more than 50 countries, including 28 in Africa, are said to be involved in the Russian Education Ministry’s large-scale project to establish a network of open education centers.
Last month, Russian education centers were launched in two West African countries: Nigeria and Ivory Coast, as well as the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in Central Africa. The facilities aim to give local students the opportunity to study Russian and learn more about the country’s culture.
