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Monday 6 April 2009

SWAZI UNIVERSITY LANGUAGES GAFFE

Sometimes you have to laugh out loud at some of the things Swazi leaders do.


The latest guffaw comes at the news that Cisco Magagula, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Swaziland (UNISWA), has raised concerns over the rate of unemployment in Swaziland.


He told a careers day at the university on Friday (3 April 2009) that there was a need to ‘create employability’ in the kingdom.


At the same event Republic of China on Taiwan Ambassador Leonard Chao encouraged the students to consider studying foreign languages. He said speaking more than two languages put people at an advantage when seeking work.


Who could disagree that in the global economy languages are important?


Well Magagula for a start. Last year he closed down the Modern Languages department at UNISWA. He did this without consultation with the department or the department’s host faculty. There is now only one modern languages lecturer in the university.


If UNISWA is serious about graduating students who are employable in the modern age they need to be a bit more far sighted than this.

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