§ Mr. BowisTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (1) how much bilateral and multilateral aid he has given in the last two years to assist Namibians in English language teaching and training inside and outside Namibia;
(2) what steps he has taken to assist in the establishment of English as the lingua franca of Namibia;
(3) whether he is planning to aid the Namibian Academy in its English language teaching projects.
§ Mrs. ChalkerOver the last two years we have provided over £1 million in bilateral aid to assist Namibians in English language teaching and training. Most of this has been for training awards in Britain for Namibian teachers of English and for assistance to exile education institutions including the United Nations Institute for Namibia in Lusaka. It has included the preparation of teaching 19W materials in English for use in Namibia's schools. Figures are not readily available for our share of multilateral aid for this purpose.
Under article three of Namibia's constitution, English is declared the official language of Namibia. We are already financing an English language adviser to the Minister of Education in Windhoek and will provide the course director for the first English language teaching course at the proposed National Institute of Languages. VSO will provide three teachers for this course. A British consultant arrived in Namibia today to advise on Namibia's education system. It is too early to say whether we will provide assistance to English language teaching projects run by the academy; much will depend on the Government's decisions on the academy's future role.