Greater Accra Minister-designate reveals plan to ‘resurrect’ Ga dialect

The Minister-designate for the Greater Accra Region, Henry Quartey, has said he will introduce a scholarship programme to help prospective teachers learn Ga and to teach same in schools within the region.

Speaking to the Appointments Committee of Parliament on March 1, 2021, Mr. Quartey said he will liaise with the Ministry of Education for the purpose of implementing the programme.

He said: “Ga language is a topical issue and I am very passionate about it. If I get the nod, I will lead the course. Some opinion leaders in the region are helping to provide scholarship for people to go and learn how to speak the language so that Immediately they come back under the medium, short-term and long-term programme, they can fit into the system and begin to teach it. I will collaborate with the Ministry of Education to ensure that this is done.”

Mr. Quartey added that he will seek support from the public and solicit funds to pay for the tuition of persons interested in the course.

“We will need people to learn the language. I will be leaning on people to support us financially and to encourage people in the region to take up the language at the higher educational levels to come and teach it.”

However, the Minister-designate told the Appointments Committee that the problem of unavailability of qualified Ga teachers in the region is attributed their transfer to other parts of the country.

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“We don’t understand why this is happening: Some teachers who will be able to teach Ga, I am told, have been transferred out of the region. I don’t think that it is deliberate. We will have to fish out for those and encourage the system to bring them back to Accra,” he said.

To prevent the problem from recurring, Mr. Quartey indicated that records of prospective teachers who learned the language in school will be kept and used during posting as a measure to retain them within the region.

“I cannot impose myself or my Ministry on the Ghana Education Service in their posting because they have a structure, but certainly with the current crisis or challenge that we have, I have to collaborate with the Education Minister to ensure that even before we get to the posting stage, we know those who studied Ga and have passed out; we know their number, how it will be shared as to whether they will be running shifts or not.”

He assured the Appointments Committee of his determination to restore teaching and learning of the language in schools if he is given the nod.

Prior to his nomination as Minister-designate for the Greater Accra Region, calls were made on the Government to intervene and prevent the phasing out of the Ga language in Greater Accra Schools.

The phasing out of the language was due to its difficulty coupled with the unavailability of qualified trained teachers who will teach it.