Mr George Appiah Kubi, a lecturer at the Department of Modern Languages, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science Technology (KNUST) has asked stakeholders in the country’s education system to reconsider the idea making the study of Ghanaian languages compulsory from basic to secondary level.
This, he reinforced will make it easy for students to get hold of their mother tongue languages well so they could also same for instructive and communicative purposes in life later on.
Speaking to the Ghanaian Observer Newspaper in Kumasi, Mr Appiah Kubi said the teaching of these local or indigenous languages will help students to understand and write them out well.
With the rapidly changing world, the lecturer argued the filling of forms at the bank as well as the writing out of prescriptions can best be done in local languages so indigenes of a particular area do not have to struggle to understand things.
‘’I will plead that the Education Ministry and the Ghana Education Service think through the idea of making the study of Ghanaian languages compulsory by making it a core subject just as they have made English, Mathematics and Science same’’, the lecture opined.
PARADIGM SHIFT:
Recounting how some institutions are embracing this idea, Mr Appiah Kubi said some multinational as well as local institutions have contacted his outfit to translate into various local languages leaflets and brochures for easy reading by their local patrons and customers.
The Ghana Medical School, he noted has contacted the department to help them translate all drugs and medical terms into the local language so their staff as well as workers could use it for both academic and field work purposes.
Mr Appiah Kubi, who also doubles as a divisional chief at Anwiankwanta in the Ashanti Region mentioned the difficulty some people who visit the hospital encounter as they struggle to explain their ailments to Doctors who know nothing about the local languages of their clients.
Many people, the lecturer of about Nine (9) years experience noted had abandoned their businesses they intended doing with banks and other institutions just because they could not communicate or understand the mode of operations of these firms.
‘’It is interesting that some institutions that had less regard for our local languages are now coming to KNUST department of modern languages to get translation for all the things they do so they could either transact business or communicate with the clients well’’, Mr Appiah Kubi reiterated.
SELF DISCIPLINE:
Speaking about his life as a lecturer and a chief, Mr Appiah Kubi said he had to apply discipline to every area of his life.
According to him, he had to structure his time table so that he could serve his students at KNUST as well as those at the Christian Service University and also find time to deal with all chieftaincy matters at the Anwankwanta area where he is Gyaasehene.
With his stool name as Nana Barima Kwadwo Appiah Kubi, the lecturer and chief said his work at these places has enabled him to positively advance the course of his students as well as his subjects at Anwiankwanta.
Having secured a partnership with the Ghana Baptist Convention and the Methodist Church of Ghana to build schools from basic to secondary level, Nana Appiah Kubi said the Anwiankwanta Chiefs want to use education to develop their town and its people.
‘’We are clear on what we want to do as a traditional authority since having obtained some level of education we also believe that is the best tool we could use to develop our town and our cherished people’’, Nana Appiah Kubi noted passionately.
What do you think about this piece? Share your comment in the comment thread and share the story using the social media buttons above. Thank you.
