Pedagogical Issues in the National Literacy Acceleration Programme in Basic Schools in the Central Region of Ghana

Abstract

The National Literacy Acceleration Programme (NALAP), which seeks to equip the Ghanaian child with literacies in both her mother tongue and in English, was implemented in Ghana in the 2009/2010 academic year. The implementation was followed by a study by EQUALL in 2010 which revealed a number of challenges encountered by teachers in the implementation. The EQUALL study made several recommendations and one of them was that there should be regular training on the approach so it does not fade away. The study however did not state the local language to be used in teaching pupils from different language background who happen to be in the same classroom. The Central Region of Ghana was not also included in this study even though it was one of the regions that was used in pilot testing the approach prior to its implementation. Using a pragmatic paradigm through the use of questionnaire, interviews and observations, this study sought to examine the pedagogical issues encountered by teachers in the Central Region of Ghana in using NALAP in teaching. The results of all the three instruments were triangulated to arrive at the findings of the study. The study revealed that teachers in the Central Region of Ghana do not teach according to the NALAP approach, however, they like to use the bilingual medium of instruction as they regard this medium as more beneficial in the teaching and learning enterprise. The study again found out that schools in the region are heterogeneous in nature with regards to language. It is recommended that schools in Ghana should be grouped according to local languages so that pupils will select schools that they would want to attend based on their own mother tongue.