Which is the Blunder? The Educational System or the Language of Education in Ghana?

BY SESHIE, STANLEY

It is said that education is the key. Sure, but for a nation with

developmental aspirations, the educational system is the key to

unlocking the potentials of the citizenry. We must therefore focus on

our educational system, as that is where the individual's key is.

Almost all who had taken the trouble to reflect retrospectively within

nagging questions of why things as they are in the country, agrees

that the blame can solely and only be laid at the doorsteps of our

educational system and for that matter their Management.

The inherited educational system strategically limits education to

reading, speaking and writing in a language, in this case, English -

the Colonial Master's language. Long after independence, our

educational system must lift the citizenry from this colonial

communication oriented intrinsic purpose to the conceptual and

pragmatic capacity of thinking relationally as well as futuristically

to undergird all our individual and national actions. That is why it

is myopic to think that when we change to reading and writing in our

own local languages, then the glaring failures of the educational

system are over. No and not all, education is not reading, speaking

and writing in a language - your favorite language.

Nevertheless, there are sure advantages in communicating one's local

language. So there is the need to expand the vocabulary-base of the

local languages to accomodate concepts across the spectrum of

knowledge organization, particularly in the sciences, mathematics,

arts and humanities. I once looked up some popular words in Ewe

dictionary and in fact, it was not helpful at all because most of the

words were not word-to-word mapping per translation. They are more of

what I will call word-to-sentence translation mapping.

For instance, science as a word in English language does not have a

concise similar correspondence in Ewe. Rather it had a sentence that

is almost the general generic meaning (dzor dzor me nunya nya). So

that I do not know how the statement "this is unscientific" will be

translated. Also it makes one wonder how branches of science as well

as various topics of engagement under them during the course of

learning and teaching shall be. The same applies to mathematics, which

is also an umbrella of many varied parts. The closest Ewe word I

verbally encountered since childhood is "aconta" which sounds more

like a business financial terminology; Accounting, than what it

purports to translate. At least in Ewe examples abound, and I am sure

it cut across all local langauges as well.

I recalled Kojo Oppong Nkrumah hosted Kofi Wayo on Breakfast Show on

Joyfm somewhere in 2009/10. When after the main discussion, the host

queried Kofi Wayo as to whether he can still speak his mother tongue,

Fante or not. As usual, Kofi Wayo responded amidst laughter, that, of

what use is the Fante language to him in a world ruled and driven by

scientific and mathematical concepts. To cap it, Kofi Wayo went on to

ask the host, what is the Fante word for thermodynamics, to which, as

expected there was no response than laughter from Kojo Oppong Nkrumah.

These deficiencies of word-to-word mapping in our local languages to

necessarily use for most conceptual terminologies or registers of

various bodies of organized knowledge that have become so common to

have even been absolved of their technicalities in the public domain

must be worked on by Experts in the local languages before the

transition is ever made.

The biggerpicture is that, whilst some educationists, as recently

reiterated by the Minister of Education, Nana Opoku Agyemang, would

like to see the language of education changed from the foreign to

local ones. It seems that they are doing almost nothing to

incorporating as in translating or adopting the indispensable concepts

pervading bodies of organised knowledge into our local languages in

order to enrich and enhance conversation to even begin with. We cannot

in the mere interest of teaching in the local languages push the

citizenry into an insufficient or almost empty set of concepts needed

for education.

Meanwhile, the truth is it is our educational system itself rather

than the language of instruction that needs overhauling. Education is

not reading, speaking and writing in a language, but more importantly

the ability to think in and with the language. When education is

redefined and accordingly operationalised contextually to promote

individual and cooperative thinking, the issue of language of

instruction will become secondary and probably irrelevant to occupy

our attention. Whether the child is taught in the foreign or local

language, the most important goal is for the educational system to

awaken and encourage the analytic and synthetic thinking needed to

unlock one's inherent potentialities to the benefit of the nation in

the ever evolving modern world.

Anything other this is not education, and this is the intrinsic

conundrum of our educational system. It is ironic that our educational

system had been stifling curiosity and as such hardly promotes

thinking. Any wonder that we have leaders who can read, speak and

write in language (foreign or local), yet their national consequential

actions shows nothing than their command of the language, not the

fruit thereof - thinking. Therefore, the blunder in Ghana is the

educational system that operationally and essentially defines

education as reading, speaking and writing in a language - misleading

many, including those who should even know better, to believing that

changing the language of education from English to the local language

is the panacea.

Email: seshiehanku@gmail.com

Facebook: Stanley Seshie

Whatsapp: 0508951313