NN42, June 2009
A Safari Towards Aid Effectiveness?
National and Donor Politics of Language Policies in Ghana ? Who really benefits?
By Georgina Quaisie, Summer Institute of Linguistics, Accra
Email: gquaisie54@yahoo.comKeywords
Ghana; Language Policy
Summary
This article examines language policy in Ghana?s education sector and the role of donors and NGOs in its development. It is an interesting example of how external assistance can go beyond government policies.
Some considerable progress has been made by Development Partners within the Ghana Joint Assistance Strategy (G-JAS) (AFRODAD, 2008). A consistent decline in the level of external debt and good improvements in harmonization of processes and alignment of assistance are also reported (OECD, 2008). Yet The Ghanaian Chronicle (2009)[1] asserts that ?almost all candidates of the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), in the Upper East Region would not write a paper in Ghanaian Language even though it is prescribed by the West Africa Examination Council? (p. 10). Mr. Fabien Belie, the Regional Director of Education, revealed to the Chronicle that the Gurine language is more widely spoken in the region than Kasem, yet Gurine is not one of the Ghana Education Service (GES) approved languages for National Literacy Acceleration Programme (NALAP)[2] implementation. This situation clearly points to some of the existing gaps in the Aid Strategy.
The current world economic crisis is likely to send a signal to Development Partners to create more room for non-traditional partners to share in the harmonization of processes and alignment of assistance at a much higher level than what is now possible. Even though the NALAP is a ?GES-led literacy initiative?, which draws on experiences of others like Germany?s GTZ in the Assistance for Teacher Education Programme (ASTEP) and the Dutch supported School for Life (SFL) projects, there is no doubt that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is the biggest funding agency.
In many ways, Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) seem to reach out to people who are marginalized socio-economically and the minority language speakers more quickly and in more cost effective ways. For example the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) International and the local partner, the Ghana Institute of Linguistics, Literacy and Bible Translation (GILLBT), supported by churches and the local communities, have extensive experience in language development, literacy and translation. These have pulled resources together and within 47 years, developed written versions of over 30 out of 60 to 70 local languages in Ghana and facilitated hundreds of literacy classes in these communities.[3] If Development Partners would create room for more participation, more children would be enabled to use their own languages in school. However, several of these organizations do not have equal voices with economically powerful nations like the United States of America.
The eleven approved languages selected for the NALAP implementation serve 92% of Ghana?s population. However, The Ghanaian Chronicle (2009) seems to prove that the remaining 8% of the population is still significant if Ghana is to meet the Education for All (EFA) targets. In Ghana, and as in most multilingual societies, consideration for language to use as a medium of instruction will continue to pose great challenges. There are many contributing factors, of which internal and external migration, teacher distribution and emergence of mega-cities are just a few. In the past, there might have been little movement, which might have made it possible to streamline policies affecting language as a medium of instruction in schools. Therefore, it is imperative that researchers and practitioners further discuss this issue with traditional partners of the governments. Needs assessment is necessary. It has been suggested that if the EFA targets are to be met, then business cannot go on as usual (UNESCO, 2002). The replacement of the previous ?English only language policy? (Komarek, 2004) with the NALAP should therefore not be considered as the absolute solution to the problem.
The problem is more complex and it is compounded by a multiplicity of factors such as the native language of the classroom teacher, the multilingual classroom conditions, frequent moving of parents with the children and increased cosmopolitan nature of schools. The search for pragmatic solutions needs to engage the attention of researchers, practitioners, policy-makers and politicians as well as the development partners. Whereas the transition from L1 to L2, appears to be the sought-out solution, this takes place in a monolingual environment with great success. If the child becomes central to policy formulation, the story may be different. There may be the need to locate children where they are, using the best approaches to reach them to enable them survive in monolingual as well as multilingual classrooms. A combination of interventions and creative ventures in exploring more partnerships would be necessary. This would call for investment of huge resources, but if more players are included, much more would be achieved in cost effective ways. With the NALAP approach, it appears that the 8% of the population, which constitute the minority people with greatest needs would have to find their own support, if their language has to be used in school (Malone, 2004).
References
AFRODAD (2008) A critical Assessment of Aid Management and Donor Harmonization in Ghana- A case Study, www.Afrodad.org
Komarek, K. (2004) Ghana2002 ?The Unbearable lightness of Learning, NORRAG News 34
Malone, S. (2004) Language Policy for Successful Multilingual Education: What Does it Take? NORRAG News 34
OECD (2008) Ghana Report: 2008 Survey on Monitoring the Paris Declaration: Making Aid more effective by 2010, OECD
UNESCO (2001) Summary EFA Global Monitoring Report 2002 Education for All: Is the World on Track?
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[1] The Chronicle Vol. 18, No. 140 Thursday, April 23, 2009
[2] Brief to District Directors of Education on the LALAP, 2008
[3] www.sil.org
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