The education ministry in Vanuatu says ensuring the country's teachers are fully trained is a more pressing issue than the policy on language.
The comment, from the minister's first political advisor, follows debate in the Daily Post newspaper over whether French is to be given more prominence than English in schools as part of a policy espoused by the mainly francophone UMP Party.
Changes to the language policy are part of an ongoing revision of the national curriculum.
Alphonse de Laveau of Vanuatu's education ministry says the proposals do place more emphasis on French because of the similarities between Vanuatu's other official languages, Bislama and English.
But he says model bilingual schools will be set up and monitored before any changes are made to the language policy and the ministry is more intent on ensuring all teachers are trained.
"Currently we have some teachers teaching in secondary schools who do not complete their scondary schools education and some are not completing primary education and are teaching in primary shools so that's one thing we are trying to resolve."
Alphonse de Laveau of Vanuatu's education ministry.
