THE POOR attitude of Ghanaians towards learning foreign languages other than English, has dealt a big blow on the National French Spelling Bee Competition. Organizers of the French version of the annual national spelling bee competition, the Young Educators Foundation (YEF) announced Saturday February 16, 2019, in Accra, with much dissatisfaction that the competition was taking a year break because of low patronage.
Ghana Country Director of YEF, Eugenia Tachie-Menson who made the announcement at the Merton International School where the 2019 edition was held, lamented that even though Ghana is surrounded by French speaking countries, Ghanaians have not seen the need to speak French.
This year, she said, the organizers were targeting 200 students to participate in the competition but only 44 turned up.
She bemoaned that Ghana’s educational system do not encourage speaking any other language.
Ghana, she said, has failed to test the oral aspect of language, saying the textbook aspect is what Ghanaians know.
The Country Director blamed the poor patronage on parents, saying Ghanaian children have interest in learning French and other languages but are not being encouraged by their parents.
She said some parents have made it clear to YEF that they do not see the need for bringing their wards to learn or participate in a French competition.
She therefore encouraged Ghanaian parents to give their children the opportunity to learn other languages.
“Ghanaian children need to be trained to speak other languages; speaking one language is limiting the children,” she said.
“We cannot continue to be surrounded by French countries and cannot speak French,” she added.
Students from various schools including Delhi Public School International are participating in the competition.
DGN Online gathered that Delhi Public School International has a total of 12 students in the competition.
The Spelling Bee targets students between ages 8 & 13, it teaches them how to use the English language effectively.
Source: Daily Guide
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