Ghana: Gov't Charged to Introduce Policy for Girl Child Education

[Don Osborn]

"14% of women in the Northern Region can read, speak and understand English
language better against 34% of men"
Wouldn't this be the ideal type of situation in which to develop
first-language / bilingual curricula? (Compare with the article posted on
this list on 8/22: "South Africa: Western Cape Promotes Learning Home
Languages")

Also, the lower percentage of women speaking the official language/language
of school is typical of many African countries. It has been suggested that
in and among other reasons families tend to send their girl children to
school less is the "linguistic divide" when school is entirely in an L2 that
the mother (and perhaps other members of the family) does not speak.

What are the hidden costs of English-only? (Or any L2 only?)

Don Osborn


> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-lgpolicy-list at ccat.sas.upenn.edu [mailto:owner-lgpolicy-
> list at ccat.sas.upenn.edu] On Behalf Of Harold Schiffman
> Sent: Wednesday, July 11, 2007 9:09 AM
> To: lp
> Subject: Ghana: Gov't Charged to Introduce Policy for Girl Child
> Education
> 
> Gov't Charged to Introduce Policy for Girl Child Education
> 
> Ghanaian Chronicle (Accra) NEWS 9 July 2007
> 
> By Edmond Gyebi
> Tamale
> 
> A SENIOR Citizen and former National Secretary of the Northern
> People's Party now New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr. Ziblim Abu
> Eddy-Cockra has charged the government to institute an immediate
> policy that would provide free scholarships for all female students in
> Ghana up to tertiary level.
> 
> He said, "Promotion of girl child education has been prioritized by
> several governments since independence but they all failed due to lack
> of good planning and policies".
> 
> According to Mr. Eddy-Cockra, the current government could never
> balance the education disparity between males and females in Ghana
> especially the three northern regions, unless a well bias policy was
> formulated and enforced to push more girls into school.
> 
> Speaking in an exclusive interview with The Chronicle after a get
> together organized by the Northern Regional Coordinating Council (RCC)
> on the Republic Day in Tamale, the former NPP National Secretary said,
> though government was making impressive moves towards the promotion of
> girl child education, there was still the need to fill the various
> potholes that were impeding its success. The occasion was to honour
> some senior citizens in the Northern Region through whose efforts,
> commitments and contributions Ghana has come this far. Mr. Eddy-Cockra
> also a former Senior Technical Officer of the Ministry of Food and
> Agriculture (MoFA) northern region, expressed grave concern about the
> highly low educational standards among Ghanaian women with special
> reference to those in the north.
> 
> Meanwhile, only 14% of women in the Northern Region can read, speak
> and understand English language better against 34% of men, as
> documented in the Ghana Demographic and Health Survey 2003. The about
> 84 year old Senior Citizen was of the view that Ghana could
> development swiftly if women who constitute the majority of the human
> resource base were educated and empowered to contribute their quotas
> to the economy. He observed that if women were empowered and allowed
> reputable national offices all the mischievous conducts in most public
> sectors especially bribery and corruption would drastically minimize,
> since they (women) were very cautious in handling positions.
> 
> On the other hand, Mr. Eddy-Cockra implored the government to
> establish what he termed "Technical Universities" to afford chances to
> SSS students who fell below the required university grades. He
> indicated that students who fell below university requirements every
> academic year were far more than the qualified ones, hence the need
> for the establishment of such universities to boost Ghana's
> technological advancement.
> 
> 
> 
>  http://allafrica.com/stories/200707091582.html
> 
> 
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