Juba, South Sudan
November 15, 2021—The South Sudan Reconstituted Transitional National Legislative Assembly calls on members of parliament (MPs) to take English Language courses to improve their speaking and reading skills in Queen’s language.
Speaking at an event last week, the Second Deputy Speaker for Administration and Finance at the Reconstituted Transitional National Legislative Assembly, Awerial Aluong, challenged his fellow lawmakers to enroll in English Language courses to improve their literacy.
According to Rt. Hon. Awerial, some of the parliamentarians are facing difficulties in participating in deliberations which are usually done in English as the official language in the assembly.
While some members of the public are asking the parliament to use translation software to help them express themselves, others say it is essential for members of the house to be fluent in English language for them to understand and enact bills for the betterment of the country.
According to those who speak well in English, some of their colleagues become a big embracement to themselves and the parliament when they can’t express themselves well both in English and Arabic.
“He has done well. Some of them are embarrassing themselves and the country,”one of the commentators said.
In response to Deputy Speaker’s demands, some MPs are resisting the call to take English courses saying as long as those who are not fluent in the national language can express themselves in their dialects, they can be interpreted to pass across their arguments.
“The deputy speaker must be new in that parliament, the conduct of business allows any member to communicate in any language that they know better as long as they take permission from the speaker, then the speaker will ask for translation. It is not a law that they have to use English,” argues another MP, who refused to be identified due to fear of reprisal.
The lawmaker argues that it might be important for MPs to communicate in English but that will only be important when the lawmakers need to interact with foreigners especially outside the country.
He said the reason why English is the official language in the country is aimed to encourage Parliamentarians to have little foundation in English speaking so that it won’t be difficult for them to communicate with foreigners during foreign missions.
“The fact that English is the official language in this country, the reason can be to enable members to have a medium of communication when sent on foreign missions,” another thought.
According to the latest reports, most of the South Sudanese Parliamentarians have only primary and secondary school certificates and majority can speak well in English.
