By Elijah Phompho
France’s Honorary Consul in Malawi Luc Deschamps has applauded secondary schools for their passion in French language and encouraged them to take it seriously.
Deschamps said this on Saturday at the end of the secondary schools French drama competition national finals of held at Zingwangwa Secondary School in Blantyre.
Deschamps (centre) and Mary Mount teacher
Deschamps said he was impressed with the performances of all participating schools, saying they presented excellent productions.
Mary Mount Girls Secondary School from Mzuzu emerged the winners followed by Zomba Catholic with Jacaranda School for Orphans, whose executive director Deschamps, finishing third.
This year’s theme for the festivals is Climate Change and the three have qualified for the grand finals.
Panel of judges
The school’s presented excellent creativity in writing the script, language articulation, good use of costumes and props, which were in relationship to the theme.
Deschamps encouraged the students to be proud that they speak good French, saying some international such as UN Agencies and even the world football governing body, Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) use French as one of its official languages.
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“French is also part of the African official language, especially in west Africa,” said Deschamps.
He said French language recognized in over 26 African countries and that over 300 million people globally speak the language.
“Even here in Malawi, some organizations value French linguistic skills, hence students who take the French language have an added advantage of being hired in such organisations.”
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The French embassy has been promoting the language through schools drama festivals since 2013 through the French Cultural Center and after the embassy closed, Jacaranda Foundation is maintaining the 32-year-old the national French drama.
Deschamps also has an outreach programme to provide library facilities for interested schools across Blantyre City and outside of it and so far it has reached out close to 20 schools.—Additional reporting by Duncan Mlanjira