Make Ghanaian Languages Compulsory in Schools-Prof Bosua

A Lecturer at the Department of Linguistics,University of Cape Coast (UCC),Prof.Lawrence Bosua has advocated the need for Ghanaian Languages to be made compulsory in all schools to accelerate the socio-economic transformation of the nation.

To this end,teachers of local languages must see themselves as the major architect of national culture and make the teaching and learning of indigenous languages learner-friendly.

This was contained in a speech read for him as the Guest Speaker by the Methodist Bishop of the Cape Coast Diocese,Ato Brown at a general meeting of the Western Region branch of Ghanaian Languages Teachers Association at Fijai in Takoradi.

The occasion was on the theme,the Values of Teaching Ghanaian Languages in Ghanaian Schools.He charged parents to use the language one(L 1) being their mother tongue at home to bring up their children to foster national unity and cohesion.

Bishop Brown recalled that attempts were made in the past to make Fante,a language of choice which started with distribution of Fante newspapers in the central region but fizzled out since Fantes themselves did not patronize them.

He bemoaned that the Central Region has not committed itself to the study of Fante in its schools most of which do not include Fante as a subject on their curriculum.

The Bishop said for effective communication in all national discourse to unearth the values and skills in Ghanaian culture, Fante ought to be taught in schools adding that Fante must form the basis for the learning of other foreign languages.

He admitted that the only way Ghana could develop is to transact business in local languages and urged government to assist the association translate textbooks from English to local languages to enhance the teaching and learning process.

The Head of Languages Department of the Sekondi Methodist Senior High School,Nana Ebo Koomson observed that the absence of a lingua-franca in Africa militates against its development.

He intimated that Akan could be used as a lingua-franca in Ghana as it has audience from six Regions in the country expatiating that with its strong accent and code-switching,Akan is gradually the language of commerce in Ghana.

Nana Koomson therefore charged experts in anthropological linguistics among others,to study the culture of others since Akan has lots of foreign languages incorporated into it and charged language teachers to write more books to develop Akan language.

The President of the Association,Mr. Prosper Nketiah said his outfit has brought all language teachers in first and second cycle schools under a common umbrella to promote the teaching and learning of local languages.

He said the association will make the study of local languages very vibrant to foster rapid socio-economic development and charged teachers to write new Ghanaian Languages books in tandem with contemporary development.

Mr. Nketiah,a tutor at the Sekondi College(SEKCO), asked teachers to create awareness about teaching and learning of Ghanaian languages.

In a-one-point resolution,the association displayed how poised it is to streamline activities in the teaching and learning of Akan as regards wrong setting of WASSCE examination questions,writing of new and modern textbooks as well as enforcing the use of Akan in schools.