Seven schools will Saturday tussle for the top position in the 33rd edition of the French Schools Drama Festival grand finale to be held at Likuni Boys Secondary School in Lilongwe.
The seven finalists in the contest running under the theme ‘La lute contre la pauvrete’ (Fight against poverty), are the hosts Likuni Boys, Marist and Robert Blake representing the Central Region whereas the Southern Region has Jacaranda School for Orphans and Zomba Catholic, with the Northern Region represented by Marymount Girls and Kaseghe Girls.
Marymount Girls are the defending champions, having triumphed in 2020 before the competition went on a break due to Covid.
Coordinator for French activities and Director of French at Jacaranda Cultural Centre and Maison De la France Poya Chapweteka said the grand finale is being held in the capital for the first time, having had it in the Southern Region during the past editions.
“We are ready and excited to host the grand finale in the capital. The finalists are all set and all this is about promoting the speaking of the French language and also unearth talent. We have Marist, which is a surprise finalist, having not taken part for some time,” Chapweteka said.
He also observed that Catholic schools have dominated this year’s grand finale, in terms of having more finalists.
“Apart from dressing the finalists with T-shirts, we will have trophies and medals to be given to the top three schools while the best actor, actress, best French speaker (male and female) will walk away with a bicycle each. There will also be other prizes but let me not pre-empt everything now,” Chapweteka said.
Jacaranda Foundation organises the French Schools Drama Festival with support from the French Embassy in Malawi.
The guest of honour during the grand finale will be French Embassy Counsellor for Cooperation and Cultural Action Ludovic Cocogne, who is coming all the way from the French Embassy in South Africa, Lesotho and Malawi and based in South Africa.
In another development, Association for the Teaching of English in Malawi (Atem) will this weekend finalise its divisional finals with South West Education Division (Swed) ahead of its national final to be held in Lilongwe next term.
About 20 secondary schools will battle it out during the two-day divisional final which starts today at Zingwangwa Secondary School in Blantyre and then Saturday at Soche Hill Secondary.
Some of the secondary schools participating include Army, Chirimba, Thawale, Chichiri, Stella Maris, Chiwale, St Kizito, Nzarene, Ngumbe, Maranatha Girls Academy Pact and Little Champs.
