Armed Forces Basic School wins song contest

Accra, Sept. 14, GNA - The Ghana Armed Forces Education Unit was on Wednesday presented with a prize won by the Armed Forces Basic School at a song contest held in Lom=E9, Togo.

The Ghana National Commission for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) presented a trophy, Kente folder and 10,000 CFA francs to the Unit as the prize for the school winning the competition.

The Armed Forces Basic School took part in the competition in the Togolese capital with other francophone schools on August 9, 2005 and won with a song in French translated to mean: "We Ought to Encourage Freedom of Speech and Expression Between Anglophone and Francophone countries."

Mr Ato Essuman, Chief Director of the Ministry of Education and Sports, urged the students to work hard to promote the cultural heritage of Ghana.

He also urged the students to take their French lessons seriously to be able to communicate and mingle effectively in francophone countries.

Mrs Charity Amamoo, Head of the Ghana National Commission on UNESCO, appealed to teachers to make culture and French education their priority.

She emphasised that there was the need to respect the country's culture and to improve upon it to enrich the cultural heritage of Africa.

In another development, the Commission also presented 180 scientific calculators worth 30,000 dollars to three public universities.

The universities are the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, University of Ghana, Legon and University of Cape Coast. Mrs Elisabeth Mundo, Director of UNESCO cluster of offices in Accra, said the calculators were to help lecturers in their scientific research projects. She appealed to the lecturers to give some of the calculators to hard working students to encourage them in their studies.