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Language Policy Debate in Ghana: A Means of Elite Closure
Albert Agbesi Wornyo
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DOI:10.17265/2159-5526/2015.08.005
University of Education, Winneba, Ghana
The language policy in Ghana’s educational system
has become an issue of debate in recent years. A change in the
language policy from the local languages as the medium of instruction to
English for the first three years of primary school in the year 2002 was
reversed in 2004. It is obvious that the language policy adopted does not
reflect in improvement in school achievement. The debate must go beyond the use
of English or the local languages for the first three years of primary
education to address the real issues that hinder school achievement. This paper
examines the factors that hinder school achievement in Ghana and other
developing countries. The paper argues that the problem
of poor academic performance in Ghana is not due to the language policy adopted.
The paper points out that the language policy is just a veil that the politicians
use to perpetuate the use of English as the language of rule in the higher domains
in order to preserve the privileges with which this language is associated. The
paper concludes that politicians in Ghana use the language policy in education as
a means to perpetuate elite closure.
Elite closure, language policy, school achievement
Sociology Study, August 2015, Vol. 5, No. 8, 643-652
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