Instructional language dilemma and challenges in Ghana's education system: any prospects?

Abstract

language plays a pivotal role in educational provision and its quality as it is the main medium that facilitates communication between the learner and the teacher. Since the introduction of the first official school language policy in 1925, there has been the dilemma of what nature the policy is to take, spanning from first language as medium of instruction for the first three years of primary school, through first language usage for the first year only to an all-English usage for the first year only to an all –English usage throughout school. The study was a baseline cross-sectional survey on the perceptions of stakeholders on the language of instructions in Ghanaian basic schools. Eighty seven respondents comprising 36 pupils, 36 parents, nine teachers and three heads from three basic schools and six tutors from a college of education were interviewed on their views and perception on the used of the local language as medium of instruction in basic schools. The literature and the present study reveal that currently stakeholders will not support one exclusive language, English or Ghanaian first language, as medium of instruction at the early stages of school due to entrenched perceptions, not withstanding whatever possible advantages there may be. The obvious choice is a mother tongue-based bilingual arrangement that effectively combines the advantages of Ghanaian first language and English. But its success calls for commitment by policymakers and other stakeholders.