Lagos govt launches French quiz competition for secondary schools

THE Lagos State Government has added a new diet of quiz competition to the co-curricular activities of secondary schools. The maiden edition of the competition conducted in French language and tagged, “A la connaissance de Lagos” meaning “how much of Lagos do you know” was held at the Immaculate Heart Comprehensive School Hall, Maryland.

Eighteen Schools drawn from the six education districts competed at the grand finale of the maiden competition which saw Sito Gbetrome Senior Secondary School, Seme, Badagry coast home with the star prize. Ikeja Senior High School and Badagry Grammar School emerged first and second runners up.

Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Dr. Idiat Adebule commended the ingenuity of the multilingual centre for the initiative, which she said has tasked the students to know more of their immediate environment and answer questions on them in French language.

Represented by the Director, Basic Education Services, Mr. Abiodun Oni, the deputy governor noted that the new competition was meant to redirect the minds of the students towards keeping abreast with happenings in their immediate environment, have a sense of history and develop penchant for reading wider and broadening their knowledge.

She recalled that in realisa- tion of the importance of French as a major lingua franca in the world, the Lagos State Government had collaborated with the TV5 World Service, a multimedia platform for the teaching and learning of French Language to get the multilingual centre certified as an international language resource center while about 400 French teachers were trained to take full advantage of the terms of certification. Adebule opined that the intensive study of French language and the introduction of quiz and debate competitions in that language is capable of producing a corp of Diplomats as French and English are the leading international languages of the world.

She encouraged the students to intensify their study of the French language to boost effective communication with our francophone neighbours to boost commerce, sociocultural interaction and above all the nation’s security management, adding that French language graduates stand better chances of employment by multinational companies and organisations.

Earlier, the Director, multilingual centre, Mrs Taiwo Haastrup said the state government introduced the centre which serves as a platform that helps French language teachers and students enhancement in oral proficiency and efficiency for effective service delivery.