IMLD: Students, teachers advocate for local language usage at basic level

Students and teachers of the Begoro Presbyterian Senior High School in the Fanteakwa North District of the Eastern Region have called for the use of local language for teaching and learning in schools, at least at the basic level.

The World Vision Ghana as part of activities to commemorate International Mother Language Day (IMLD), held a stakeholder engagement Programme at the schools during which the students and teachers added their voices to the calls for Ghanaian Languages to be used on the floor of Parliaments as suggested by a Parliamentarian as well as the use of same for academic purposes at the basic level.

Project Officer, Reading Improvement and Skills Enhancement (RISE) Programme, World Vision Ghana, Vanessa Boateng-Okrah, highlighted that most mother tongue languages are fading away because it’s not used in schools so the children lack the foundation.

“We have realised that most of our local languages are fading in schools because we don’t use it as a method of instruction when teaching so we hope there could be a national policy to revive that in schools, especially the foundational level- thus Kindergarten (KG1) to Primary-three,” she said.

Explaining the rationale behind the quiz competition, she expressed that it is important to use such means to promote local languages and ensure the children do not form negative opinions about their mother tongue.

“As we mark this important day we must create more awareness. What we have identified is that we don’t use the mother tongue anymore and even in schools, when children speak their local language some of them are reprimanded for speaking it and we feel like it’s not ideal. We should promote our local languages and we realize that some local languages are even going extinct so we want to keep them in the system, revive them, even promote our cultural heritage, and not let our cultural heritage fade away, just like that,” she added.

The students who have acknowledged the importance of the use of local languages at the basic level and in schools during presentations by teachers believe the use will help broaden their understanding of issues.

They also appealed to the Ministry of Education and Ghana Education Service (GES) to intervene for the use of local languages in schools during a debate competition organized by World Vision Ghana, to commemorate this year’s IMLD

Lead Debater for the motion, Ampadu Phillip Agyei, speaking to the media on the sideline said: “We are losing some of our culture, as I indicated during the debate, some of our local games, food, folktales and a whole lot of things concerning our native language is being lost to Western culture.

“If I am adapting someone’s language, like English language and French does not mean I should completely ignore my mother tongue. Unfortunately, most people, especially children and youth are losing their language, I think maybe someone should take all the points we shared seriously that using local languages in schools will help preserve our culture.”

The General Arts student is hopeful that parliament will consider the proposal before it which demands the usage of native languages by parliamentarians on the floor during discussions in the house.

IMLD is an occasion to create awareness and sensitize the public about the promotion of the mother tongue among the young ones in schools to preserve local languages.

Madam Vanessa Boateng-Okrah also supported the call for Parliament to adopt the use of local languages in the house.

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