École Ronsard, a bilingual international school located at East Legon, has obtained the French LabelFrancÉducation certificate, becoming the first Ghanaian school to be accredited.
The LabelFrancÉducation was launched by the French Ministry of Education in 2012, aiming at identifying, recognizing and highlighting the bilingual programs of excellence abroad.
This year, 456 schools were accredited in 60 countries globally, including Ghana for the first time since inception of the programme.
Though École Ronsard is the first school to have obtained this accreditation in Ghana, the 2021 application campaign is still open until April 15th for all schools offering bilingual programs to apply and could be granted the LabelFrancÉducation.
Ambassador of France to Ghana, Anne Sophie AVÉ, presenting the certificate to management of the school indicated that through this accreditation, the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs has developed an offer of advantages that the École Ronsard will benefit including teachers’ training support, access to many educational resources, with an accent on the numeric ones, and development of the Francophone environment with an access to a network of accredited schools.
The École Ronsard has been working with the Lycée Français International Jacques Prévert d’Accra (LFIA) for years, especially during the Francophonie festival which takes place March every year in Ghana.
It was highlighted that attainment of this accreditation is based on very ambitious criteria, i.e., a reinforced program in French language and culture; the presence of at least one French-speaking teacher with a master’s degree or equivalent from a Francophone university; a proven level of French proficiency for the teachers involved in the bilingual program; a continuous training plan for the teachers involved in the bilingual program; the presence of a Francophone environment (resources, international exchanges) and the presentation of the students to French language certifications, such as the DELF-DALF.
Emphasis was placed on the fact that despite the accreditation is under the supervision of the Agency for the French Teaching Abroad (Agence pour l’Enseignement Français à l’Étranger – AEFE), the LFIA remains the only school in Ghana to teach the French curriculum.
