Minister tells teachers to use local language No English

Minister tells teachers to use local language No English

Education Minister, Prof Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, has asked heads and teachers of basic schools to desist from the use of the English language as the sole medium of instruction in the classrooms.

Heads of basic schools, she noted, introduced English Language too early, making it difficult to prepare students adequately for higher academic learning.
She therefore urged teachers to use the local languages as medium of instruction in the classroom and gradually introduce the English language after the local language had been fully developed.

“When we teach children in languages that they do not understand, teaching and learning do not take place and frustration begins to build,” she said in Accra last Monday at a ceremony to mark the beginning of the assessment teachers for the 2014 National Best Teachers Award.

Shortlisted teachers are being interviewed by a panel of educationists and the best among them would be selected for the awards on October 5 to coincide with the World Teachers Day.

Prof. Opoku-Agyemang said studies had shown that students performed better when taught in the local language and appealed to the teachers to endeavour to use the local language as a medium of instruction at the basic level.

Unhappy that there was no Best Teacher in Ghanaian Language category award, she urged organisers of the programme to make provision for local languages in future ceremonies.
“The inclusion of Ghanaian language is critical. It is important for learning. Sometimes, we compare ourselves unfavourably with countries like Malaysia and South Korea, but all these countries teach in their local languages,” she said.

She commended teachers shortlisted for the interview and urged them to continue to work hard.

“Nobody can thank any teacher well enough. You are making significant contributions to the development of the country,” she said and added that the state would forever be grateful for the contributions of teachers.

The Director of Education in charge of Pre-Tertiary Education, Ms Rebiana Azara Amandi, said a total of 170 teachers had been selected from all the 10 regions to be interviewed for the awards.

Categories for the awards according to her, included Best Teacher in Mathematics, Science, French, and Special Education. She assured that a category for Best Teacher in Ghanaian Language would be included in subsequent ceremonies.

Ms. Amandi said the teachers shortlisted, were nominated by their school heads, community elders and some students and added that they had successfully gone through the circuit, district and regional interviews before being selected for the national.

Source

An Open Letter To Edo State Governor, Comrade Adams A. Oshiomole. For The Sake Of Our Mother Tongue: A Cry For Help

MAR 4 AN OPEN LETTER TO EDO STATE GOVERNOR, COMRADE ADAMS A. OSHIOMOLE. FOR THE SAKE OF OUR MOTHER TONGUE: A CRY FOR HELP

The Comrade Governor Sir,

Edo Focus Parliament is a Pan-Edo interest group, formed primarily to propagate, promote and defend our age-long values of Unity; dignity of Labour; and unassailable cultural standing in the comity of states.

We wish to respectfully draw Mr. Governor's attention to the rather apprehensive and pertinent observation made by UNESCO regarding the imminent extinction of several languages, including sadly,the Edo language from the face of the earth. Your Excellency will doubtless be deeply concerned about this uncheering news since you are a well grounded Edo man.

Without much ado, as parents and Guardians, we are reliably informed that Edo language has been systemically obliterated from our public schools curriculum and we are alarmed that most stakeholders have shown little or no concern to this misnomer. We have therefore resolved that you take immediate step to reverse this inglorious scenario and save our dear mother tongue from the predicted hurricane. Andrew Dalby's assertion" A language dies every two weeks" depicts how serious this issue is. Studies by linguistic scholars further buttress this trend; as they evidently affirmed that over 3000 of about 6700 languages the world over will be extinct over the next century. It is worthy of note that 96% of the worlds population speak just 4% of the 6700 languages. This underscores how small languages are marginalized and put under pressure by larger ones and they must "fight" to survive every where, including our geographical divide.

Years of unguided, unmoderated and unwholesome assimilation of other cultural values, especially the English language in its standard, sub standard and bastardized forms have resulted in a violent dislocation that has alienated our youths and some adults from the Edo language in a dangerous way. Comrade Governor Sir, it is considered really trendy and sophisticated for young Edo children and adults to tell you with a sense of smugness that: "I can't speak Edo" "I can barely understand". And we speak of children born, bred and raised in Benin City. For their peers living outside Edo State, try address them in Edo language, and you get a strange look that says, "Oh! here comes one of the village oldies".And God help you, if you are hoary headed and a bit bent from age, because you would just have confirmed their perception.

Comrade Governor, we are not being facetious, the loss of identity consequent upon the losing of their language by our youths is complete . It is even more heart rending to find the painful linguistic torture you have to endure from the "English Language" of this class, when you try to engage some of them, in the English language they claim they speak.

When we compare this scenario to that of children from non English speaking European and Asian countries, who at age five can speak their languages fluently as well as the English language learnt from school and how that secures for them a sense of identity and build their self confidence, we can begin to understand the root of the disparity between those civilizations and ours. Comrade Governor Sir, we need not state here the inalienable value of our mother tongue. We need not state how it connects us to the brotherly fellow feeling with our community and how that together reaches back to our progenitors, our history, our heritage and culture. Language is our identity, the common bond of existence in a metaphysical land scape.

How many times in our lives experiences have we found unspeakable relief, consolation and bond in meeting our "language person" in other shores of the world. Not infrequently, life time bonds are formed from such musical phrases like: "Ovbiedo u kain"? "Oto' ma u kia"? " E'san we' khin" ? from such chance encounters.

Our Comrade Governor Sir, we are very worried about this negative development and the implications it procures for our history, our present and our future as a race. We are therefore appealing to you, to please convene an Edo Language summit to address this issue. The Forum is pledging an unmitigated functional partnership with the present administration to secure our common destiny. Already, Hon. Edokpolo has been involved in a limited sense in this endeavour through translation of Edo movies language into English to connect to our youth population. It is however our considered opinion that Government needs to firmly make Edo language a compulsory part of our academic syllabus from nursery to senior secondary school levels.

This with other deliberately organized and encouraged social interactions with the language will definitely find us reclaiming our roots again across Edo south/North & Central. We are confident that the Comrade Governor will find this a worth while legacy to bequeath to the Edo nation in his administration. Another issue of no less importance is teaching of history and social studies which now seem relegated to some academic trash can, but need to be revisited due to the importance of a people knowing who they are.

Please accept the assurances of our highest regard and support.

Signed.

Aiyamenkhue Edokpolo

Hon. Austin Atakpu Esq

Rt. Hon. Bright Omokhodion.

For and on behalf of the Edo Focus Parliament, Worldwide.