Assessing the use of English as a medium of instruction at Asafo Catholic JHS

Abstract

The language of education is crucial to learners’ academic success. As a result, most multilingual countries have adopted bilingual education systems that recognize the child’s native language and a second language, which in most cases is the official language of the country. Ghana, because of its multilingual nature, has promulgated a language policy which uses the child’s L1 as medium of instruction at the lower basic level from KG1 to Primary Three and English used from Primary Four onwards. However, this policy has not been rigorously observed and enforced by teachers and educational administrators respectively, especially in the rural areas. This qualitative study, therefore sought to examine the factors that have militated against the use of English as medium of instruction at Asafo Catholic JHS and also examined the attitudes of teachers towards the implementation of the language policy.