The Deputy Minister for Education, Rev. John Ntim-Fordjour has hinted that Ghana is to receive 21 French Teachers from the International Organisation of La Francophonie (OIF) before the ending of this year.
He explained that the Teachers who are experts in the teaching and learning of French from 11 different French-speaking countries are coming to the country to support the training of French Teachers in the country as well as enhance the usage of French in the country for the next three years.
Rev. Ntim-Fordjour gave the hint last Friday, at a ceremony where the Government of Ghana through the Ministry of Education and the International Organization of Francophone (OIF) signed a three-year framework cooperation agreement on the teacher mobility project (2021-2024).
IOF project.
The International Organization of La Francophonie is an organization that covers 88 members of States and Governments that use the French language as a common medium of communication to promote peace, good governance, respect for the culture and linguistic diversity to achieve sustainable development goals.
Ghana and its people share these values and that is why it joined in 2006 and signed a Linguistic Pact with the organization in 2018.
This culminated in the adoption of an Action Plan in 2019.
The action plan borders on four thematic areas: Education-(Strengthening the place of French in the education system), Francophone environment-(creating an environment and facilitating access to Francophone productions and materials for the populace).
The rest are Linguistic development (strengthening the place of French in public and administrative life to move towards regional integration, and Language Policy (language policy reforms in relation to language teaching.
Rev. Ntim Fordjour said the Ministry of Education was fully committed to the promotion of teaching and learning of French and its usage in the country by progressively transforming the Ghanaian space into a francophone environment.
He explained that the context of the framework cooperation agreement on the teacher’s mobility was anchored on the implementation of the Linguistic Pact and stress on building the capacity of the Ghanaian French teachers.
The Deputy Education Minister stated that the 21 experts will be deployed to three institutions where their service will be needed most.
He said some would be sent to the six Colleges of Education in charge of the initial training of future French teachers such as Mount Mary, Evangelical Presbyterian College at Amedzope, Wesley College, Enchi College of education, Bagabaga and Gbewaa College of education.
The rest, according to Rev. Fordjour would be sent to the Regional Centres for the Teaching of French (CREF) in charge of the continuing training of in-service French Teachers in the ten traditional regions in Ghana.
He also mentioned that of them would be sent to the Bilingual Schools system whereas early as Lower Primary 1, pupils are being introduced to the study of mathematics, science and Information and Communication Technology in French.
Rev. Ntim Fordjour for instant said ” the mobility project has shown that our country is indeed a centre of attraction of the Francophone world”
The French Ambassador to Ghana, Anne Sophie AVE, on her part indicated that with the strategic location of Ghana in the West African Sub-region, learning French by Ghanaians would go a long way to promote the socio-economic development of Ghana.
She mentioned for instance that looking at the fact that Ghana hosted the headquarters of the African Continental Free Trade Centre attested to the fact that Ghanaians needed to study French to enable them to get jobs in French-speaking countries.
The French Ambassador lauded President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for taking a keen interest in speaking of French in the country
The Head of OIF Mrs Thi Hoang Mai Tran said the signing of the framework cooperation agreement between OIF and Ghana will strengthen the teaching and learning of French in the country.
She again said the signing of the agreement would strengthen the initial training of primary, secondary students and the continuing education of teachers and education professionals in the country.
The signing of the agreement on behalf of the Republic of Ghana was done by Mr Benjamin Gyasi, Chief Director at the Ministry of Education while that of the OIF was done by, Head of OIF, Mrs Thi Hoang Mai Tran.
