'Support govet in provision of French books'

Page 64
10-07-2008

THE Minister of Education, Science and Sports, Prof. Dominic Fobih, has called on the International Organisation of Frachophonie (OIF) to extend its support to the government in the provision of French textbooks.
He said with French being one of the key subjects under the educational reform, there was the need for more textbooks for the effective teaching and learning of the language.
Prof. Fobih made the call when the Director of the West African Bureau of OIF, Mr Etienne M. Alingue, paid a courtesy call on him in Accra.
OIF, like the Commonwealth, is an organisation which aims at promoting peace and security, good governance, democracy and the socio-economic and cultural development of its member states.
The organisation, which has 68 member states with more than 200 million people speaking the French language, was founded in the sixties by Leopold Senghor of Senegal.
Prof. Fobih said there was the need for the organisation to strengthen its partnership in teacher education in French.
The organisation, Prof. Fobih said, had sponsored the training of Ghanaian teachers of French in Togo, Benin and Cote d’ Ivoire, adding that last year, a number of Ghanaian diplomats pursued courses in international relations with support from the organisation.
He said since independence, Ghanaians had always expressed keen interest in creating and sustaining relations with the Francophone world.
Mr Alingue said the OIF’s mission included promotion of French, cultural and linguistic diversity, promotion of peace, democracy and the rule of law, provision of support for basic education and training of professionals, as well as encouraging projects of co-operation between states for sustainable development.
He said the organisation could not promote French in areas where there was confusion and conflict or in educational systems that did not work.
He said Ghana had a good distance education system, and that the organisation would tap that to train more French teachers.
Mr Alingue indicated that apart from working with countries, the organisation had worked with the United Nations, African Union and ECOWAS.