Educator Applauds Teaching “Lanng Manman Nou” In Schools

A leading educator in Saint Lucia has applauded the move to introduce the teaching of Kwéyòl in schools. Earlier this year, it was announced that the island would finally introduce the teaching of what some describe as the “indigenous” Kwéyòl language or “lang manman nou,” in schools at the start of the new school year in September. The pilot Kwéyòl curriculum has since been introduced to fourteen primary schools and one private institution at the Grade K, 1 and 3 levels. Instructions are being done via two, thirty-minute lessons per week. On Wednesday, St. Lucia Times spoke with Dr Winston Phulgence on the introduction of the teaching of Kwéyòl in schools. Phulgence is an historical anthropologist with a specialisation in heritage management and head of the Social Science and The Knowledge Society of the Sir Arthur Lewis Community College. “I think it is a good idea,” he started by saying. “It allows us as a society to start teaching using our language. What we have had happening is a distancing of people from themselves. It has been too long that we have been discriminating against our people because of their language because I think we all know the thinking is...