Telangana: Free French classes for underprivileged

HYDERABAD: To help underprivileged students aspire towards global opportunities, Alliance Francaise will soon provide free French classes to them.
Students belonging to Telangana Social Welfare Residential Educational Institutions Societies (TSWREIS) and Telangana Tribal Welfare Residential Educational Institutions Societies (TTWREIS) will gain access to these classes starting this month.
According to the director of Hyderabad's Alliance Francaise, Samuel Berthet, the pilot project also focuses 20 teachers from both TSWREIS and TTWREIS who will not just learn the language, but also be capable of teaching it.
"We will be selecting these teachers based on their interests and capabilities, and will not only make them learn, but also equip them with the ability to teach other teachers or students," Berthet told STOI. The course is set to begin in the third week of October with 100 undergraduate students - 75 from TSWREIS and 25 from TTWREIS for three years.
"The students will start with 120 hours of A1 French which will be taught online during weekdays and offline during weekends. After which, they will learn A2 level for 140 hours and B1 level for 200 hours," the course coordinator of Alliance Francaise, Maud Tyckaert, told STOI. Berthet also explained that there are talks underway with the Universite Bordeaux Montaigne to let the teachers be trained there for a brief period.
"Another objective of the project is to equip students with the skills to pursue a job in a French company," Tyckaert added.