Improve teaching, learning of French. MOMACOE Alumni tell GES

The Alumni of Mount Mary College of Education (MOMACOE), have called on the Ghana Education Service (GES) and the Ministry of Education (MOE) to institute measures that will help improve the teaching and learning of French in the country.

The President of the MOMACOE Alumni, Pastor Andrew Alhassan, made the call in a welcome address on behalf of the alumni at the first homecoming of the old students to the college at Somanya in the Yilo Krobo Municipality in the Eastern Region.
He said Ghana was surrounded by French-speaking countries and if Ghanaians failed to study French, it would impact negatively on the country’s trade with those countries and in other areas.
He observed that the teaching and learning of French had been relegated to the background and the MOMACOE Alumni would continue to encourage the ministry to take the issue up and correct errors to bring MOMACOE to its past glory in order to produce French scholars for the country.

Brief history
The Mount Mary College of Education, Somanya, was established in 1947 by the American Catholic Divine Word Missionaries (SVD) as a college for the training of Certificate ‘B’ (Post B) teachers.
In January 1953, the Teacher’s Certificate ‘A’ (Post B) programme was  introduced to run alongside the Cert ‘B’. In the same year, the Teacher’s Certificate ‘A’ 4-year programme was introduced. These two programmes remained until 1974 when the status of the college changed to  two-year post-secondary.
In 1975, the French government established a French Department in the college to train French and English teachers for junior and senior high schools in Ghana. Thus in September 1975, the first batch of French and English teachers were admitted for the Teacher’s Certificate ‘A’ three-year post-secondary course.
In 2005, the three-year post secondary was also phased out following the introduction of the three-year Diploma in Basic Education (DBE) Programme.
Currently, MOMACOE awards Diploma in Basic Education (DBE) in French and General Programme.
Pastor Alhassan said the first homecoming was to bring together the old students in parts of the country and the diaspora.
He added, “We the old students have to set the ball rolling for the Education Ministry to wake up. Some of us who studied French at MOMACOE are teaching the course in the classrooms, and others are also doing very well in  other institutions and organisations. Mount Mary College is an eye-opener to teaching and learning French in basic and senior high schools in Ghana and we need not to toy with the language,” he said.

French-related jobs
Pastor Alhassan noted that Ghana was becoming a hub of international organisations with French-related jobs, “but we don’t have the people to be employed and it is sad. We, therefore, want to implore the government to institute measures to improve French education”.
New executive members of the alumni were elected at the homecoming.
They are the President, Pastor Andrew Alhassan; Vice-President, Ms Stella Attakpah; Secretary, Mrs Irene Baah Asare; Treasurer, Mrs Peace Harriet Ransford, and Internal Auditor, Mrs Tatiana Biawu.
Members of the association also adopted a new constitution as their working document.
The acting Principal of the College, Mr Samuel Agyekum Darkwa, swore in the new executive and enjoined the leadership to be guided by their constitution, be fair and firm and operate a transparent administration.