Dr Mathew Opoku Prempeh, Minister for Education has affirmed government’s commitment to make learning and speaking of French at the basic level education compulsory.
He noted that although French was currently being offered in the Junior High Schools and was an option in the six programmes at the Senior High Schools, the results at the Basic Education levels remained a challenge.
He explained that it was government’s vision to promote the learning and speaking of French and also to equip French Teacher Trainees to be abreast with modern French language modules.
Dr Prempeh stated this during a meeting with a delegation from the French Embassy in Accra who paid a courtesy call on him.
He said government had embraced the teaching and learning of French as the second foreign language studied in the educational institutions in addition to English, the official language, and the vernacular.
“There was the need to redefine the country’s relations with the French government to promote the speaking and learning of French at the tender age,” he added.
The Education Minister believed that if the country can get the teaching of French language at the basic level, there might not be the need to teach French at the public institutions because the foundation was strong.
Dr Prempeh thanked the Government and People of France for the continuous support towards Ghana’s educational improvement.
Mr Francios Pujolas, the French Ambassador, said the Ministry in 2016 signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the French Embassy for assistance to ensure the effective teaching and learning of the French Language.
Mr Pujolas said the support, which was worth 700,000.00 Euros, was part of his Government’s “Solidarity Priority Support Fund” project, which was aimed at assisting countries to improve the teaching and learning of the French Language at the pre-tertiary and tertiary levels.
He explained that three key areas of intervention for the current support would be at the high school level, science-oriented institutions and the Mount Mary’s College of Education, which was the Regional Centre for the teaching of French instructors.
Mr Pujolas said learning the French Language would not only ensure better trade deals between businesses, but also broaden the horizon of Ghanaians to the Francophone world for healthier collaborations and partnerships.
Source: GNA
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Brilliant start 'NAPO'!!!!!; but developing the TWI language or Akan language would have been a very good initiative because to me ;we all 'think' in our local languages and language is a powerful tool in todays world ; Russia ; Arabs ; Spaniards ; Chinese ; Germanys all use their local languages as their first languages why not Ghana !!!!!; have you heard the Russian leader speak in English -NO WAY !!!!!! although this could be a HOT POLITICAL PATATO for some politicians to feed on; to me a gradual initiative would be GREAT !!! why don't you add the Chinese language.
The move is laudable. In addition to that, a local language can be adopted for study as national language in schools and without being bias whatsoever, I think Asante or Akuapem Twi will do. Any of the two languages is widely spoken in the country and too easy to learn.
This is mental slavery.Choose Akan as a national language in addition to English.We can't be slaves forever.NAPO or whatever he calls himself
A very good move.
Good news! Bravo Minister. This will help us to compete for jobs in the international arena.
Ce n'est pas mal, mais en plus ajouter notre langue locale, pour chaque enfant de parler sa langue maternelle
If Ghana wants to be the beacon of West African development, this is a must. Multinationals who would like to operate in the W/A belt will use Ghana as a base, but we should have the skills to engage with the multitude of Francophone countries surrounding us. ++Now on the issue of promoting a local language and mental slavery: whose local language should we promote? On what basis did the Government of Ghana select 11 languages to be written and studied? why was my language not selected? why should I be learning asante twi or dagaare in jss? they are also other people's langauges, ans is that not mental slavery for me? Either the government makes ALL Ghanaian languages compulsory at the basic schools or none at all, because a discriminatory selection is as bad as people think this French compulsion is. Obviously, there are more questions than answers when it comes to multiplicity of languages and national development policies. Its complicated. Even the Bible says multiplicity of languages originated from a rebellion against God...that includes mine, yours, twi, french, english...
This is not bad, but in addition add our local language, for every child to speak his/her mother tongue.
WHY NOT A LOCAL LANGUAGE DEPENDING ON THE REGION.EVEN THE ENGLISH IS A PROBLEM.................MINISTER PLEASE USE YOUR HEAD
Mental slavery,you aren't making your own language compulsory