Mother tongue-based schooling cannot work in Ghana - Education Minister

Education Minister raises issues with mother tongue-based schooling


The Minister of Education, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, is questioning the policy mandating the use of the mother tongue in teaching children in their formative years.  

According to the Minister, the policy cannot work in Ghana where there is a lot of inter-ethnic marriages, migration and no clear definition on a standard language to be used as a mother tongue.  

UNESCO has for sometime now been pushing for the use of the native language for instruction arguing that, children learn and develop better. 

Based on this, Ghana has adopted the use of the mother tongue as the language of instruction.  

However research has shown that, this does not work in countries such as Ghana where more than 51 percent of people live in cosmopolitan areas.  

Although he was not specific on what the Ministry under his leadership will be doing about this policy, Dr. Opoku Prempeh in an interview at the Global Education Skills Forum said the policy creates challenges for children.

GBC