National Language and Literacy Policies and Multilingualism in Ghana: Implication for Literacy Development in Basic Schools

Abstract

: This paper discusses the Ghanaian language policies and multilingualism and their implication for literacy development in Basic Schools in the country. A configurative synthesis approach to Systematic Reviews of secondary qualitative data was used to analyse the influence that Ghana’s current national language and literacy policy has on bilingual or multilingual education and how that translates into literacy instruction in basic schools. It was discovered that, Ghana had several languages and literacy policies over the years with the most recent of them being the National Literacy Acceleration Programme (NALAP) introduced in 2009. This policy advocated for 80% use of local Ghanaian language (L1) for instructional purposes from Kindergarten 1&2 to primary two (P.2) and 50% in primary three (P.3) in addition to the English language (L2). The policy aims at producing bilingual Ghanaian children by the end of P.3. This implies that teachers are supposed to teach children how to read, write and speak in both Ghanaian and English languages and concepts in the various subjects must be taught in Ghanaian language as the main medium of instruction supported by the English language. From primary four (P.4) upwards, the English language becomes the main medium of instruction up to secondary school. This language and literacy policy focuses on only eleven (11) Ghanaian languages out of a total of eight-three (83). The current study then recommends among others that, more Ghanaian languages should be developed into writing forms and adapted for use in education to increase the probability of children being instructed in an L1 that is their mother tongue. Also, for the policy to achieve its aim, learners should be allowed to choose a Ghanaian language as a core subject right from KG to study it up to the tertiary level.