Diplomatic World nummer 54

162
The target public is composed of three main categories:
- the children of newcomers (e.g. refugees) who usually have
an underdeveloped mother tongue. They cannot express
themselves well, they talk at home about their emotional
experiences and have elementary conversations about
daily activities in Arabic. At school, another language is
used. But also in Dutch or French they are handicapped
with respect to the other pupils. Some of them start
mixing up languages and a lot of children start using
Dutch words in Arabic dialogues. Their Arabic is not
rich enough anymore. Older children can perhaps speak
fluent Arabic but have issues with reading or writing,
since they are immersed in the language of the school.
- the children from Moroccan origin or Arab origin. The
Moroccan population is the second largest community
after the French one in the Brussels Capital Region.
The children can speak Arabic, although their accent is
different from standard Arabic. There is a need for them
to learn how to read and write Modern Standard Arabic
fluently.
- the children from mixed background, or interested in
learning Arabic. A recent initiative was launched by the
French speaking secondary school (typical student age:
12-18 years) in Sint-Lambrechts-Woluwe — a commune
in the Brussels Capital Region — where Arabic language
courses will start in September 2017. The director:
“After French, Dutch and English, Arabic is the fourth
language in Belgium. In Brussels, almost 350.000
inhabitants can be connected to the Arabic language
family.” If these types of initiatives are multiplied, there
will be a much greater possibility for our current target
age category (6-15 years) to continue with Arabic language
courses in secondary education (12-18 years) and later on
at the university.
Dividing the children into a reasonable number of age
categories, and taking account of their existing language
skills, is one of the most difficult and important tasks of
the Arabic language teaching project. For the current pilot
phase of the project, the number of categories was fixed at
four per location. Currently the frequency of the courses
for the children is 4 hours/week on Saturdays or Sundays.
The participation fee is kept low to ensure that there are no
financial thresholds hampering the access — 80 euros/year.
As you have understood, I am very enthusiastic about
the objectives of the Arabic language courses as sketched
above, but I have a serious concern … the sustainability. As
it is now, the teachers are volunteers, and the cost of the
project is covered by unspent funds of past projects. The
operational costs of the Arabic language project do not
fit directly in the classical government funding channels,
whether those of the Ministry of Education (it does not
fit in Higher Education because of the age category of the
children, and in Brussels only Dutch, German and French
lessons for foreigners are supported), or in the budget
of the Brussels Capital Region (which primarily focuses
on short term priorities), or in the budgets of classical
investment funds (there is no direct financial return on
investment). The classical non-profit organisations have
confined their interventions to a priori limited niches
to ensure tangible impact and visibility of their actions.
Therefore, the viability of the Arabic language project is
inevitably dependent on a sustainable mix of private and
public funding. I am convinced that once the financial mill
starts turning, both will mutually reinforce each other —
see Enclosure 2
Chances of success of new university initiatives that are
not deeply rooted in the university’s DNA are minimal.
Through its objectives of identity recovery and societal
integration, the Arabic language project, as well as the
Student-Refugee Programme, fit perfectly into the strong
commitment of VUB to create societal impact. Moreover,
multilingual education is key in VUB’s vision statement. A
survey among our current students showed that 80% of the
521 respondents would like to follow a minor in Arabic in
the official curriculum and 85% would also be interested in
an extra-curricular course.
This is the story of an Arabic language teaching project.
It is running now, but still under construction, and some
of the outcomes are at the stage of hypotheses that remain
to be verified. For many, it is quite a controversial project,
since the first thing that usually comes to mind when
people hear about the project is that the children should
be embedded in Dutch or French language. But they are
embedded, five days a week already. This project has aims
that reach beyond Arabic language acquisition, but for
which this language is the basis. The project fully fits in
the era of cosmopolitan nomads, large-scale migration
and vulnerable refugees who have crossed their nation’s
frontiers. Sami Azar, whom I encountered for the first time
some two years ago, has become a ‘school director’ again.
I am sure he will make a new generation of children happy
and better prepared for the global world we live in.