<div dir="ltr"><div class=""> Government urged to adopt clear language policy </div>
<div class=""><b>News Date:</b> 20th July 2016</div><br><br>
<span class="">Stakeholders from various sectors have
called for the need for government to adopt a clear language policy to
specify the roles of “our Ghanaian languages and other languages in
our national life".<br><br>
They said the need for a national language policy "is a necessity and
not a choice" adding that "this policy must have a legal backing to
ensure its enforcement". This was contained in a communique issued after
a two-day language policy conference organised in Tamale by the Ghana
Institute of Linguistics, Literacy and Bible Translation (GILLBT).<br><br>
It was attended by stakeholders from public and private institutions,
researchers, academia, civil society organizations (CSOs) and the media.
The conference provided the opportunity to remind policy makers,
parents and all stakeholders on the importance of the use of the mother
tongue as a medium of instruction for improvement in literacy and
education outcomes.<br><br>
The conference was on the theme: "The Mother Tongue in National
Development". The communique recommended that public universities assist
in the training of teachers or language professionals in the Ghanaian
languages as well as in the production of training materials such as
textbooks, dictionaries, literature books and other literacy materials
to enhance the use of the local languages.<br><br>
It also recommended that the Ministry of Education, University of
Education, GILLBT and other stakeholders should assist in the
development of orthography for Ghanaian languages to enhance the use of
local languages as a medium of instruction in all public schools, at
least at the lower primary level.<br><br>
It also recommended that public universities should have terminology
centres for language modernization and terminology development just as
was done in Tanzania and South Africa. The communique called on national
and local governments to show more commitment by making resources
available for the development of the local languages.<br><br>
It called on GILLBT to assist in the translation of national documents
such as the constitution, campaign messages of political parties among
others in the local languages. It concluded by calling on Ministries of
Education, and Finance, GILLBT, CSOs, Non-Formal Education Division,
chiefs, parents amongst other stakeholders to support the use of the
mother tongue as a medium of instruction at lower primary levels in all
public schools across the country.<br><br>
By Albert Futukpor, GNA <br><a href="http://www.businessghana.com/portal/news/index.php?op=getNews&news_cat_id=&id=212028">http://www.businessghana.com/portal/news/index.php?op=getNews&news_cat_id=&id=212028</a><br clear="all"></span><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">**************************************<br>N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its members<br>and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal, and to write directly to the original sender of any offensive message. A copy of this may be forwarded to this list as well. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)<br><br>For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to <a href="https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/" target="_blank">https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/</a><br>listinfo/lgpolicy-list<br>*******************************************</div>
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