The dilemma of instructional language in education: The case of Ghana

Samuel Opoku Appiah,Alfredo Ardila

doi:10.1556/063.2021.00104

Abstract

AbstractAccording to Victor Hugo (1802–1885), “He who opens a school door, closes a prison”. This powerful statement demonstrates the importance of school in the development of a nation and the lives of individuals. It has been proven that the language used in early childhood education has an impact on the cognitive development and learning achievement of children in their educational arena.Most countries in Africa are still discussing the language to be used as a medium of instruction in their educational system.Ghana, which is known as a multilingual society with over 80 languages is not excluded from this controversy. The language policy of education in Ghana has had a complex history since the colonial era. The question of international schools in Ghana is critically examined; most of these schools do not teach any of the Ghanaian languages, but a foreign language.Ghana, however, has been a strong advocate of the so-called African personality and the use of English as the medium of instruction is in overt opposition to this ideology. The argument about which language to be used as a medium of instruction in Ghanaian Schools has been going on for a long time without coming to a specific conclusion.

Highlights

The majority of the 54 African countries until recently were European colonies, and the language of the colonizer country quite frequently was used as the lingua franca (Gann, Duignan, & Turner, 1969; Obondo, 1997)
In January 2001, the Director General of the Ghana Education Service (GES) signed a letter that sought to remind its officials, teacher associations and all heads of Basic Schools in the country about the existing language policy originally announced in 1971. This Policy states that, instruction at the Lower Primary Level (Primary 1–3) will be conducted in the pupil’s mother tongue, or in the major Ghanaian Language of the local area, while English will be studied as one of the subjects offered at the Lower Primary Level
Within 17 months of the circulation of this reminder, a policy change was declared by the Minster of Education, which compelled the GES Director General to send another circular to inform the same recipients that: (a) English should replace vernacular as the medium of instruction in the first three years of Primary schooling. (b) Every Ghanaian child must study one local language from Primary One level up to the Senior Secondary School Level. (c) Students should be encouraged to study the French Language

Summary

Introduction

The majority of the 54 African countries until recently were European colonies, and the language of the colonizer country quite frequently was used as the lingua franca (Gann, Duignan, & Turner, 1969; Obondo, 1997). KEYWORDS school language, Ghana, English, multilingualism, early childhood education p Corresponding author.

Results

Conclusion