IMPLEMENTING GHANA'S LANGUAGE-IN-EDUCATION POLICY IN A MULTILINGUAL CLASSROOM IN THE CITY, ACCRA, GHANA

Abstract

The paper examines the implementation of Ghana’s language-in-education policy in a multilingual classroom in the city of Accra, Ghana. The current policy stipulates the use of the dominant local language as the medium of instruction. Ten (10) public basic schools in the Krowor municipal district of Accra were used for the study. The study participants comprised one hundred pupils (ten pupils from each school) of Basic 1 and eleven teachers. Qualitative research tools were used in collecting and analyzing data. The analysis revealed that most of the classrooms in the district were multilingual which posed a challenge to both teachers and pupils who were not proficient in Ga, the dominant language of the locality. The researchers recommend, among other things, that for the policy to be workable, policy makers (Ministry of Education, Ghana) and implementers (Ghana Education Service) need to collaborate to ensure that, in posting teachers to Basic schools in Ghana, their indigenous language background is considered.  In the case of the pupils, a bilingual approach, proffered by NALAP is recommended.  

Keywords: Accra; language-in-education policy; multilingual classrooms; bilingual approach