Foreign Languages Secretariat pays working visit to the Department
By: Novire Kuuyizie Francis
The Foreign Languages Secretariat at the Ministry of Education (MoE), Ghana, has paid a working visit to the Department of Language and Communication Sciences at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.
Led by the Director of the Secretariat, Mr. Tchitchi, and French education expert, Mr. Olivier Kalaydjian, the visit was geared towards identifying core areas and needs of the department to enhance the teaching and learning of foreign languages, especially French.
This, according to the Director of the Secretariat, is to aid the Ministry of Education and the Foreign Languages Secretariat in drawing a comprehensive long-term national plan for French and Francophone studies in the country.
In her remarks, the Head of the Department, Dr. (Mrs.) Victoria Faleke Ogunike highlighted the many challenges the Department was facing regarding the teaching and learning of foreign languages, especially French, and stressed the need for scholarships and grants to motivate students pursuing French and Francophone studies beyond the undergraduate level. She emphasized that the lack of financial support forces students to self-fund their studies, posing a significant challenge to the growth of French language education.
She added that French had become a compulsory course in over 11 departments at the university including departments at the Colleges of Health and Engineering but the absence of a purely French setting in which these students can practice the language poses a challenge to their development. She implored that the secretariat and its partners to help fix the almost obsolete software at the Language Lab to aid students in seamless learning.
“This a timely visit, the department is in a fix right now, students reading French are required to go on a year-long Language Mission in a Francophone country, but this year, preparations are slow because we are not getting enough positive responses from the scholarship secretariat so we don’t even know if students will be able to go on this mission next academic year.
“…last year I had the privilege of hosting the France Ambassador to Ghana and I suggested that to make the language more attractive to students and outsiders, they should consider setting up a French village where the only spoken there would be French; it could even become a tourist attraction. Ghana is surrounded by francophone countries, and that is a plus”, she stated.
Dr. Kofi Adu Manya, a French lecturer at the Department underscored the importance of staff development programs to the overall enhancement of the teaching and learning of the language and added that the Secretariat as the official liaison between higher education institutions and the Francophonie, should endeavour to notify the department on events or seminars that would better equip staff for their job as French lecturers.
The French education expert at the Secretariat, Mr. Olivier Kalaydjian stated that the Secretariat and its partners were working tirelessly with the French Language for Employability initiative in an attempt to make French attractive to the job market and change the notion reading French as a program to become a French teacher.
“On Scientific French, we are working with the Foreign Languages Secretariat to make French a tool that can aid students in getting jobs apart from teaching the language, we want to use technology to help teachers to improve the courses and soon, we are going to experiment with a short a short course, how we can use Artificial Intelligence to help teachers in making better lessons”, he assured.
He indicated that the Secretariat was exploring opportunities for student internship opportunities with francophone organizations in or outside the country as part of its long-term national plan for the growth of French and Francophone studies.