Many middle leveled career Ghanaians have lost several opportunities to take up jobs abroad simply because they cannot speak nor understand French. Even more worrying is when other nationals take up job opportunities in Ghana, at the expense of their Ghanaian counterparts for the same reason.
Over the years, the performance of Ghanaian pupils in French has been abysmal with many calling for the study of French to be made compulsory to change the trend.
Among some reasons given for the poor performance in French, is the inadequacy of quality teachers to excite the curiosity of their students, the lack of adequate materials for study among others.
But at the French and Bilingual International School at East Legon, Ghanaian children and foreign nationals who attended the school’s open day were enamored by the sheer allure of the school’s environment, flexible schedule for play and study, as well as the top notch facilities for studying science, music, ICT among others.
The basic level library of the school boasts of 10,600 collections of books. All libraries are digitized.
The school has 6 interactive digital boards, and the science centres in the school boasts of world class scientific gadgets for studies.
“We see that the older students are involved taking us around. It shows that they enjoy what they have been learning here”
“I am multi-lingual; I speak four languages. What’s unique about the school is we know everyone because of our smaller classrooms; and we have a really good relationship with our teachers. They really help you enjoy studying”, a thirteen grader said.
Ezelle, a fifth grade pupil remarked “I’d loved to be here because I like the environment and I will love to learn how to communicate with others when I travel out of Ghana”.
“I definitely love the environment. This is definitely a good platform to expose my kids to the bilingual environment because these days you can’t just speak English and expect to be ahead because in Ghana we don’t have many places like this. We are definitely considering bringing our kids here” a mother who patronized the open day said.
We are opening up to more Ghanaians – Principal
According to the Principal of the School, Benard Bonville, the school wants to welcome more Ghanaianss.
“Our fees for Ghanaians are lower compared to the other nationalities. We have some grants for very good students; but we have four Ghanaian students who are schooling for free. This is our own way of saying to Ghanaians that we want to help to improve the study of French. It can be difficult for the Ghanaian pupils to speak French from the beginning when we admit them; but step by step, we welcome with English and add some French just for them to adapt to our system”.
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(Via: CitiFM Online Ghana)
