UEW/USAID Carries Out Language Mapping in Ghana

The College of Ghanaian Languages Education, Ajumako of the University of Education, Winneba has secured funding from the United States Agency for International Development- Partnership for Learning (USAID-Learning) to carry out a nationwide language mapping exercise.

This phase of UEW-USAID School Language Mapping Exercise will cover 40 districts in Ghana. At a training session held from March 25 to March 27, 2017 at Windy Lodge in Winneba, 173 Research Assistants and 20 Supervisors from seven regions in Ghana (Central, Western, Ashanti, Eastern, Brong Ahafo, Volta and the Greater Accra Regions), were introduced to an Online Data Collection Software (Open Data Kit, ODK) in collecting data.

In his welcome address, the Principal of the College of Languages Education, Professor Avea E. Nsoh informed participants that the principal objective of the school language mapping exercise is to collect data on the representation of Ghanaian languages in the early grades (KG 1 to primary 3) of schools in Ghana. It is to this end, he said the training was designed to build the capacity of participants in the use of appropriate technologies in the field for data collection and transfer.

On the objective of the project, he noted that it was important to carry out this nationwide language mapping exercise to inform language education policy in Ghana. He called on the research assistants and supervisors to be committed to the process of data collection to ensure that the data was actually gathered from the field to reflect the actual responses of the respondents.

He said that UEW as a teacher training university was delighted to partner USAID in the process of improving quality education in Ghana, as it was part of its mandate to train competent teachers, conduct research and disseminate knowledge to stakeholders of education.

Speaking on the Project, the Head of Department of Gur-Gonja at the College of Languages Education, Dr. Samuel Atintono stated that the project sought to improve literacy especially among early grade classes from KG1 to Primary 3 in Ghanaian Public Schools.

The project, he indicated aim to empower 2.8 million Ghanaian pupils to read in English and any appropriate Ghanaian language by the end of the Phase II of the learning project in 2019. A new language policy document would be drafted by the end of the learning project, he noted.

Present at the Workshop were lecturers in the Faculty of Ghanaian Languages Education of the College of Languages Education, UEW, Representatives from USAID- learning partnership and the Coordinator for Externally Funded Project Office (EFPO).