NDC Killed Education - Churcher

She did not say it in black and white; neither did she say it the way politicians do. She said it as a teacher that no doubt, the language policy of the National Democratic Congress is the reason why today students do not even get to understand the questions set in English, to provide reasonable answers.

The obvious result is a disaster of such monstrous dimension as a massive leakage of BECE examination questions. The bottom line?

Government has described as unworkable, the practice of using local dialects as the medium of instruction at all levels of education because it has retarded the progress of the Ghanaian child.

Minister of State responsible for Primary, Secondary and Girl Child education, Christine Churcher (MP) in full flight, told Parliament that the practice introduced by the former government has created “tragic disparities between the rural and the urban child”. And this has more than convinced the government that the policy was bogus, unworkable and untenable and must not be allowed to continue. “We are doing what is right because the graph shows that we have to go back to English.”

Churcher defended the decision taken by Cabinet and announced by Education Minister, Professor Christopher Ameyaw-Akumfi some six weeks ago. Ghanaian language has been the medium of instruction for children in classes 1-3 for the last two decades or so, but the Kufuor administration holds the view that it is the cause of the fallen standard of education in the country and has therefore taken the decision aimed at reversing the heart rendering trend.

The language debate, which has been around for a very long time had been raised again last Tuesday in a statement read by the Member for Bongo, Albert Abongo. Mr. Abongo had argued that “it is easier for learners to learn closely related languages” so where necessary teachers could be given in-service training in Ghanaian languages and methods and the policy allowed to continue.

But Churcher, candid, practical and full of emotions submitted to the House that the decision was a well-informed one taken by a government which is determined to at least repair the great damage done to the country’s educational system which was topped as an icing on the cake with the compulsory, almost military introduction of local languages in the very formative stages of the child where they learn fastest.

And there was cross-carpet trading too, for while party stalwarts like Hawa Yakubu slammed the policy because to her it will not preserve our culture and heritage, strong government critics like Johnson Asiedu-Nketia, MP-Wenchi West supported the government’s policy amidst shouts of ‘hear, hear’ from the majority side. Opponents of the policy are amazed about the view that the new policy has become necessary because of the need to improve the pupils’ level of comprehension of the English language and to improve the child’s performance in other subjects.

To them, these claims fly in the face of the volumes of research findings available to the sector ministry including reports of the one conducted by the Ministry and USAID in 1999/2000. They argue that these findings demonstrate sufficiently that children perform better in all subjects including English when they are taught in the language that they already understand and speak.

The government has meanwhile set up an Education Committee to review the country’s educational system and present an advisory report. Kosi Kedem, MP, Hohoe South therefore challenged the government’s moral justification in pre-empting the findings of a Committee made up of prominent educationists and professors. He thought that the government should have waited for the Committee’s report before coming out with any such policy.

So, Ms Churcher believes, that until such a time that Ghana can boast of enough local textbooks, “we cannot pretend to be ready to use local language for instructions”.