UTB: New program to teach Kiswahili language

The University of Tourism, Technology and Business Studies (UTB) jointly collaborated with Professor Malonga Pacifique, the BECOS coordinator to set Kiswahili short course program and certify interested people.

The move targets to offer the full package of Kiswahili skills to Rwandans of various categories through the joint collaboration of this university and BECOS and it will be taught jointly from this university.

“We want to run Kiswahili short course program and certify people but we target to offer the full package of Kiswahili skills to Rwandans of various categories here at UTB and it will be taught jointly from this school,” said Professor Malonga.

“I have decided to join UTB as the central university in Kigali to improve Kiswahili and root its effective use among the wider Rwandan population. I hope that through the partnership with this university, the move will have efforts and Kiswahili language will help everyone to cope with east African community opportunities,” Malonga added.

Prof. Malonga has 32 years teaching experience in various universities and has started the bureau of Kiswahili to develop the language where he writes various books including Kiswahili dictionaries.

Kabera Callixte, Vice Chancellor UTB said that this is a good initiative they would like to join as it adds value to the courses that are currently taught at the university in regard with Business and Tourism.

“We need to make Kiswahili the root of business integration Especially in East Africa, Kiswahili is spoken worldwide by over 150 million people and it has been so far integrated among the Rwandan official languages,” Kabera said.

“As the campus that teaches especially hotels,, tourism and ICT in business, we are lucky as such lessons link the worldwide population especially those in the east Africa. We hope with the joint partnership we will spread the effective use of Kiswahili among Rwandans,” Kabera added.

Kabera said that this will be possible as each country became as the single village where neighbor countries are able to share businesses and knowledge as well as many other opportunities.

“We currently teach Kiswahili at UTB, UTB is also in various EAC associations using KISWAHILI, like CAWAKIGWA, CAWAKAMA, and our students have leadership in such association,” said Kabera.

“Utalii, biashara, are lessons that our students learn. With BECOS partnership, this can be the right manner to spread Kiswahili to various categories of Rwandans in business, tourism, and related fields. We have prepared ourselves, we have teaching materials and teachers and we started register whoever wants to learn Kiswahili,” said Kabera.

The registration is open and the first class will start on April 17^th, 2017 according to Kabera.

The course will be offered though two groups; beginners and advanced students who currently have basic skills of Kiswahili.

As a campus, we are ready to welcome everybody interested in these short courses. The courses will take 120 hours for beginners and 80 hours for advanced students.

“We wanted to be at the top of five EAC countries using Kiswahili and we want to contribute towards the success of Kiswahili inception among Rwandan official languages,” Kabera noted.

Malonga explained that they do not focus on offering degrees as this language is taught in formal classes.

“We do not focus on Kiswahili language that offers a degree, we target everyone who wants to learn Kiswahili and equip him/her with fluent speaking, writing, reading and understanding package. In this framework, we will be able to teach vendors, motorcyclists and other people in various categories,” Malonga said.

Registration fee for these courses for one person is Rwf 5000 and Rwf 4000 for a person in the group of twenty people and above whereas the tuition cost is Rwf 240,000 for a course of 120 hours per person.

Students (beginners and advanced levels) will be offered certificates for full attended courses of 120 hours throughout the year.

By Elias Hakizimana