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The government and policy makers have been urged to include multilingual education in the country’s educational policies to create building blocks, connect cultures and promote mutual understanding.
According to the President of the Ghana Publishers Association (GPA), Mr Asare Konadu Yamoah, the promotion of multilingual education involving the use of two or more languages, as mediums of communication was essential in conflict resolution.
Mr Yamoah said these yesterday in Accra at an engagement with students of the Kwashieman 1 Basic School in Accra, as part of activities to mark World Literacy Day celebrated on September 8 annually.
This year’s theme is “Promoting Multilingual Education: Literacy for mutual understanding and peace.”
According to Mr Yamoah, the GPA recognised the important role languages played in the preservation of the Ghanaian culture, and had a number of books published in different local languages across the country.
Additionally, he stated that the GPA was ready to support government policies that encourage multilingual literacy, lamenting the lack of attention given to the study of Ghanaian languages in schools.
“I think the government has not been forthcoming on that. The Ministry of Education has not been able to emphasise that. They were even having this programme that children from class one, kindergarten up to primary three, were to be taught in their own language,” Mr Yamoah stressed.
“When you’re looking for Ghanaian language books, it’s difficult to get them in the schools. Because government’s emphasis has always been on the English books. But we need to also encourage our people to read in their own languages,” he added.
Mr Yamoah, therefore, advocated the review, strengthening, and implementation of existing and new educational policies to capture multilingual literacy.
Furthermore, he urged the government to ensure the availability of Ghanaian language books at schools, various communities and also sensitise teachers to the importance of multilingual education and how it helps to promote regional integration.
For his part, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of STEP Publishers, Mr Lawrence Darmani, noted that multilingual literacy was key to addressing the issue of ethnocentrism, where a particular culture was deemed to be superior to the other.
He explained that through the promotion of multilingual education or literacy, Ghanaians would learn to accept and appreciate the culture and language of one another, thereby fostering peaceful co-existence.
Touching on other areas, Mr Darmani said illegal mining and sports betting were hindering the students from enjoying the full benefits of formal education and therefore called on stakeholders to help in addressing them.
The headmistress of Kwashieman 1 Basic School, Ms Justina Awanu, thanked GPA for organising the event and also appealed to the association to assist in addressing some challenges such as inadequate furniture, books, and security the school face.
“Literacy will help us, especially as the young ones, to be critical thinkers and also to be problem solvers. And that is why it is very, very crucial. When we are literate, it increases our independence so we don’t rely on people for our survival,” the Municipal Education Director of the Ablekuma North Municipal Assembly, Mr Ebenezer Perry Ofori, added.
Story books were given to the students at the end of the event while GPA pledged to restock the school’s library with more reading books
BY PRECIOUS NYARKO BOAKYE
