Response
On mother
Tongue Education
Nii Ayi Croffie,
June 17, 2015
On Mother Tongue
Education am a keen enthusiast of mother tongue
education and cannot fail to realise that under
the No Child Left Behind Policy pre-University
children of non-English descent in the United
States must learn English as a second language
but for all other subjects they can learn and
take tests in their native tongue. In fact New
York has written tests in 14 languages and
offers oral translations for other languages.
Back in Ghana can we not get WAEC to offer such
services. Learning English
and studying other subjects in the language you
best understand will get
our children to cross the 28.1% pass barrier on
National tests like WASSSCE
and BECE, would it not?
Believe it or not in terms of English Ghana has
only 25% literate folks. 5% are semi-literate and 50% are illiterates.
In all languages the literacy rate is 70%.
As you can see the test results are closely
related to the literacy rate.
China whom you hold up as a model of good
education now allows other languages other than
Mandarin (about 70% literacy rate in PRC) in
schools and testing to boost educational
attainment even further.
Should we continue a policy that has caused so
many Ghanaians so much misery and continues to
keep us in poverty. Human Resource Development
IS
Economic Development. Why do you enjoy working
in the West so much? Don't you love the
masses of educated people with whom you can
share and
implement ideas?
We do have mother-tongue education manuals all
the way to Middle School due to early missionary
efforts like the Basel Mission. Its just a
matter of continuing the effort. Its not a
recipe for poor governance. I hope we have
successful discourse on this issue Thank you.
Nii Ayi Croffie,
Founder,
Mother-tongue Education Rights for Ghanaians
June 17, 2015
To which the
original author asks: In what mother
tongue would the teaching be done in the city of
Accra?
Responding to the
following:
When political correctness is sold as mother tongue
for education reforms - E.
Ablorh-Odjidja
