Language-in-Education Policies in Ghana: Identifying the gaps

Language planning and language policy are activities undertaken by governments and institutions to guide and inform language choices and language use with the aim of achieving certain desired outcomes. Within the education sector, language-in-education policies are undertaken usually by governments or educational departments to inform and guide the choices and use of language in education settings with the aim of achieving certain goals. Although Ghana has experimented with several language-in-education policies, the country repeatedly fails to achieve the desired goals with the policies. There is therefore the need to examine the policies in order to find out what may possibly be responsible for their inefficiency. While many studies have examined these policies from different perspectives, this study focuses on the identification of possible gaps in the policy statements. The study used interviews, library search, and information from relevant institutions to access past and present language-in-education policies in the country for analysis. The findings revealed that Ghana has neither an explicit national language policy nor substantial independent language-in-education policy documents. Instead, a few statements about language-in-education can be located in educational reform documents and ordinances. It was also revealed that details of the language-in-education policy containing reforms and ordinances are generally not available or accessible , and that only references and some comments and remarks are available in various studies. The study therefore recommends a number of actions, including the establishment of a functional language bureau, a draft of explicit policies on national language, language-in-education, and implementation, monitoring and review guidelines.