By Elizabeth Osayande<\/p>\n
The University French Teachers\u2019 Association of Nigeria, UFTAN, has called for a repositioning of French language studies in Nigerian universities to meet 21st-century demands for entrepreneurship, technology adoption and labour market relevance.<\/p>\n
The call was contained in a communiqu\u00e9 issued at the end of its 27th Annual Conference and Annual General Meeting held at the Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Port Harcourt, from October 11 to 15.<\/p>\n
The conference, themed \u201cReimagining French Language Studies in the 21st Century: Emerging Trends, Entrepreneurial Pathways and Labour Market Opportunities,\u201d brought together over 200 delegates, including more than 20 first-time participants, with representatives of the French Embassy and Alliance Fran\u00e7aise, Port Harcourt, in attendance. The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Okechukwu Onuchuku, served as Chief Host.<\/p>\n
The conference featured a keynote address by Prof. Mike Edung, a lead paper by Prof. Dele Adegboku, and plenary presentations by Prof. Mufutau A. Tijani and Prof. Ngozi Iloh, who stressed the need to reposition French Studies in response to technological change, graduate employability concerns and evolving labour market demands.<\/p>\n
The Dean of Postgraduate Studies, Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Prof. Chibuzor Nwobueze, in a presentation on Entrepreneurship and Diplomacy, underscored the need to link French competence to entrepreneurship, diplomatic engagement and wider professional opportunities.<\/p>\n
In his remarks, the Pro-Chancellor, Dr Chinyere E. Igwe, emphasised the strategic value of French for Nigeria\u2019s diplomacy, trade and relations with neighbouring Francophone countries. The Director of the Nigeria French Language Village reaffirmed the importance of the Language Immersion Programme (LIP) for improving students\u2019 communicative competence.<\/p>\n
A health session on stress, diabetes, hypertension and kidney disease highlighted healthy lifestyle choices and regular medical screening, while participants also paid a courtesy visit to the palace of HRM Eze (Barr.) Uchechukwu Isaiah Elikwu, Eze Apara Rebisi XII, King of Rebisi Kingdom.<\/p>\n
At the end of deliberations, UFTAN resolved that members and institutions should encourage responsible adoption of Artificial Intelligence and digital tools for teaching, research, translation, language learning and entrepreneurial skills development.<\/p>\n
The Association also resolved to reaffirm the strategic importance of French in Nigeria, with sustained government and institutional support for its teaching and learning at all levels.<\/p>\n
It further resolved to intensify efforts to secure research grants, institutional partnerships and international collaborations for training and professional development of lecturers in Nigeria, France and other destinations.<\/p>\n
UFTAN also resolved that poster presentations should be introduced at future conferences to create opportunities for young academics and postgraduate students.<\/p>\n
On future conferences, the Association announced that Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, will host the 2027 edition with the theme \u201cDigital Media and French Language Studies\u201d, while Kaduna State University will host in 2028 and the Nigeria French Language Village, Badagry, will host in 2029.<\/p>\n
The Association thanked Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, its Dean of Humanities, Prof. Ibiere Ken-Maduako, keynote and plenary speakers, and the Local Organising Committee chaired by Dr Juliet N. Elikwu, with Prof. Priye Iyalla-Amadi as Convener and Dr Jeremiah Nwachukwu as Secretary.<\/p>\n
UFTAN urged members, universities and policymakers to implement the resolutions and promote French language education as an instrument for education, employment, diplomacy, regional integration and national development.<\/p>\n
The communiqu\u00e9 was signed by Prof. Richard Ajah, President, and Dr Gracious Ojiebun, Secretary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Elizabeth Osayande The University French Teachers\u2019 Association of Nigeria, UFTAN, has called for a repositioning of French…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":675385,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[72,191,61,60],"class_list":["post-675384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entrepreneurship","tag-business","tag-entrepreneurship","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=675384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675384\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/675385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=675384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=675384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=675384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}