The National Commission for La Francophonie, The Ministry of Education and Alliance Française de la Dominique are celebrating Francophone Month with multiple activities among students from the various schools across the island under the theme “J’aime, Je partage” which translates to “I love, I share.”
The launch of the month-long celebration took place at the Alliance Française institution on Wednesday morning.
This year makes it six years since primary schools have taken part in the activities, and well over thirty years for secondary schools according to Senior Education Officer, for Curriculum Measurements and Evaluation Unit in the Ministry of Education, Robert Guiste.
He highlighted the efforts of the coordinators, teachers and others in ensuring that one hundred percent of schools on island teach the French language.
“I should mention that French, because of our hardworking teachers, French coordinators, and because of the support of the Ministry of Education, Alliance Française, and from the French government, French is now being taught in one hundred percent of our schools,” he said.
Guiste said this was a good sign as French and modern languages form part of the national curriculum framework.
“In fact, it is compulsory that all students at all of our secondary schools at some point do French,” he remarked.
The Ministry of Education has sponsored a few of the activities while some are organized and sponsored by Alliance Française.
The month of observance will culminate with a grand pageant where six young ladies will vie for the title of Mademoiselle Francophonie 2017 on March 25th at 4:00 pm at the Arawak House of Culture.
Reyanna Caprice of the Convent Prepatory School, Shanese Daway of the Newtown Primary, Kellianne Bunche representing the Morne Prosper Primary School, Daella Couchy from the Massacre Primary school, Cheynel Bazil from the St. Martin Primary, and Sherlyn Joseph representing the Goodwill Primary School will all compete to become winner of the pageant.
Other activities include a Secondary Schools French Day, French cooking competition, and a Poetry evening and Theatre presentation.
On the last day of Francophone Month, March 31st, there will be a Francophone Food Fair at the Alliance Française Institution at 6:00 pm.
See contestants of Mademoiselle Francophonie pageant below.
De par son histoire et sa position entre La Martinique et La Guadeloupe, il est culturellement enrichissant pour La Dominique de favoriser la connaissance du Français . Nous en savons les mérites ici au Québec, Canada. Personne ne s’appauvrit à connaître deux ou plusieurs langues.
That is good. however what happened to all the activities at the Secondary school level ? Every focus seem to be more on primary schools for some time.