2022 CoLANG Cultural Week Celebration Held
Every year, the College of Languages Education (CoLANG), University of Education, Winneba (UEW), dedicates a week to showcasing Ghanaian culture to the rest of the world to highlight Ghana’s unity in cultural diversity.
This year’s ceremony took place at the Ajumako Campus of the University from Wednesday, May 4, through Saturday, May 7, 2022. It was under the theme “Living in a multilingual setting: the role of the Ghanaian Language teacher”.
At the grand durbar on Saturday, Dr. Paul K. Agbedor, a lecturer at the University of Ghana's Department of Linguistics, urged Ghanaian language teachers to always strive to instill in students the need to embrace cultural diversity and continue to live in harmony, as CoLANG had demonstrated.
He acknowledged that resources to achieve more as a Ghanaian language teacher are limited, and that some government policies and parental attitudes do not favour Ghanaian language teachers or encourage students to study Ghanaian languages. He, on the other hand, urged them to be dedicated to their work as Ghanaian language teachers. The keynote speaker urged Ghanaian teachers to improvise and do whatever they could to develop Ghanaian Language education despite the constraints.
Dr. Agbedor implored politicians to start exhibiting the value of the Ghanaian Language and set their priorities right if they want to make education the bedrock of society. “Our problem has been selfishness and greed. For the advancement of Ghana, the government must be sincere in its policies.”
The Principal of the College, Prof. Dominic Danso Mensah, in his remarks as the Chairman for the occasion, referring to the theme, indicated that the socialisation of children to accept and live peacefully with people of all cultural backgrounds starts with the training and experiences students acquire from the College.
The Dean, School of Graduate Studies, UEW, Prof. Samuel Asiedu-Addo, who was representing the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Mawutor Avoke, emphasised the importance of the government, teachers, students, and parents to the success of education. He, as a result, urged teachers to accomplish exactly what was required of them, even if the government falls short of expectations.
Prof. Asiedu-Addo condemned the practice of blindly emulating Westerners for the sake of being in vogue. He urged the audience to be proud of Ghanaian culture and pass it on to future generations.
The Ag. Head of Department, Akan-Nzema Education, Dr. Kwasi Adomako, on his part, advocated for the need to respect one another’s culture to forge the whole nation ahead.
