The President, Mr. John A. Kufuor, has been asked to include French in the President's Special Initiative on Distance Education on television, to boost the teaching and learning of French in Ghana.

Mr. Joseph Saki-Venyor, President of the Ghana Association of French Teachers, made the appeal in support of the President's acknowledgement in his sessional address to parliament of the importance of French in Ghana and the need for it to be taught at all levels of education.

Mr. Saki-Venyor was speaking at this year's Francophonie National Competition Awards at the Alliance Francaise in Accra. The competition forms part of the 2003 edition of Quinzaine de la Francophonie (Francophonie fortnight) festivities.

The festival was introduced in Ghana eight years ago. This year, 2,668 students from junior and senior secondary schools and tertiary institutions in addition to 80 French teachers participated in the competition. 26 of them received prizes ranging from a short stay in a Francophone country to T-shirts and brochures.

Mr. Saki-Venyor said the increasing number of participants every year, indicates how the learning and teaching of French is picking up in the country.

He called on the Ministry of Youth and Sports to see to the formulation of a French language policy to enable Ghana find a place in the global economy and assert herself in the Francophonie.

He called for the reactivation of the 'Parlons Francaise' on GBC Radio 2. Mr. Jean Michel Berrit, French Ambassador to Ghana, said since the inception of La Francophonie has opened great horizons and has been a vehicle for cultural diversity and a promoter of peace and development.

The French Ambassador called on M. Abdou Diouf, the Secretary General of Intergovernmental Organization of La Francophonie (OIF), to translate the ideas he expressed when he assumed office in March this year, "into action and not mere principles and utterances which are never implemented".

Mr. Ofori Awuah, Deputy Director-General of Ghana Education Service (GES), noted that the shortage of French teachers in the country has not attracted many students to the study of French. He attributed this shortage to the brain drain of Ghanaian French teachers to neighbouring Francophone countries.

He said the GES would continue to encourage more students to study French and pursue it to the highest level, in order to get more French teachers into the system.

Mr. Awuah thanked the French Embassy for helping to establish two more institutions in the country to train French teachers. He said this would create more French teachers and bring the exodus of the country's French teachers under control.

The competition was organized by member countries of La Francophonie, the Ministry of Education, the Ghana Education Service, the National Commission for Culture in collaboration with the Ghana Association of French Teachers, the Regional Centres for the Teaching of French and the Alliance Francaise. It was supported by the Embassies of France, Canada and Switzerland.