Four groups of civil servants from various ministries recently graduated in an English course at the Rwanda Institute of Administration and Management (RIAM).

The six-month long course which was conducted by the British Council in partnership with the Ministry of Education, was aimed at enhancing English speaking ability among civil servants working in different ministries.

This is the first batch under the programme which primarily targets people in managerial positions.The trainees were sponsored by their respective ministries namely; Foreign Affairs, Health, Agriculture and Infrastructure.

"With service providers undertaking language courses, there is high hope that tomorrow will be brighter for Rwanda. Through the partnership between the Government of Rwanda and the British Council, we will continue to endeavour to realize our goals,” said Tom Hinton, the British Council’s regional English and professional development manager for East and West Africa.

"All these people have got to another level in English speaking and communication, and they earned it because they invested in their time, and showed motivation in learning,” added Sarah McFadden, one of the trainers.      

Rwanda aims at becoming a fully-fledged bilingual society, with her nationals able to speak fluent English and French – an important ingredient for the development of a knowledge-based economy.

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