SPbPU promotes Russian education in Africa

The Days of Russian Language and Culture continued in Côte dʼIvoire with two days of events organized by SPbPU.

The opening of the Days of Russian Language and Culture was held with the participation of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso Alexei Saltykov at the National Polytechnic Institute of Félix Houphouët-Boigny.

Students were shown a video about SPbPU in French. Master classes on painting kokoshniks and matryoshka dolls were held at the event aimed at promoting Russian education.

The guests of the photo exhibition «Russia: History, Traditions and Modernity» were introduced to the main milestones of Russian history and everyday life of the Russian people.

Literacy in Côte d’Ivoire is about 50% of the adult population. This is a relatively low indicator for the African continent, which indicates the need to improve the education system in the country. The establishment of the Russian-African Network University (RAFU) consortium has become an important solution to this issue.

More and more African universities are interested in joining the consortium, coordinated by Polytechnic since July 2023. Improving the quality of existing higher education and increasing the number of universities on the African continent, as well as training highly qualified personnel is the main task of RAFU.

Representatives of SPbPU met with the heads of institutions in Cote d’Ivoire, which wish to join the consortium. Negotiations with the National Polytechnic Institute of Félix Houphouët-Boigny ended with the intention to sign a cooperation agreement.

The parties discussed the creation of retraining and internship programmes for teachers in the fields of energy, oil and gas, mechanical engineering, management and finance. In addition, they considered the possibility of opening a Russian language centre on the basis of the university and the development of network programmes.