Re-examining the fluctuations in language in-education policies in post-independence Ghana

Abstract

Language-in-education policy in Ghana has been in a flux since British colonial rule but particularly so after independence. A close examination of post independence language in education policies shows these fluctuating policies have moved from one form of bilingual education policy to another. Many tensions and paradoxes that arise from bilingual education policies in multi-ethnic/multilingual communities stem from a conflict between policy decisions that are rooted in a particular linguistic tradition and the sociolinguistic realities such policies are to address. In this article, I present a brief historical account of the developments of language policy in education in Ghana since independence and argue that while the flux may have been caused in part by instability in government leadership, it may have also occurred as a result of possible tensions between the set objectives and the implementation of such policies, i.e. that the policies may have been based on assumptions that do not reflect the sociolinguistic practices in Ghana.