France’s Embassy in Brazil, along with Italy’s and Germany’s diplomatic missions, successfully lobbied Brazil’s congress to remove Spanish from the country’s secondary school curriculum.
The congress approved the new curriculum on July 9, which now awaits approval by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s president.
Mandating Spanish as a second language in Brazilian schools could have severe repercussions, warned Hélène Ducret, educational cooperation attaché at the French Embassy in Brazil.
“Spanish is already chosen by 95 per cent of Brazilians learning a second language. A government mandate for secondary education would be detrimental to other languages. We advocate for multilingualism,” she said.
Italy’s diplomatic mission also expressed satisfaction that Spanish was not included as a mandatory language.
“The Italian community in Brazil, which includes over 30 million descendants, was very concerned about the secondary education reform,” it stated.
The German Embassy emphasised “Germany and Brazil are close partners” and have already signed agreements to promote German as a foreign language in the country.
“German teaching institutions in Brazil stress the importance of secondary students having the option to learn German in school, alongside English,” noted Germany’s embassy.
As a result, only English will remain compulsory through students’ three years of secondary school, allowing students and educational institutions to choose which additional language to study.
