Let’s pilot Chinese in public schools before scaling up – EduWatch
The Executive Director of Africa Education Watch, Kofi Asare, has called for the piloting of Chinese language in selected public schools before any decision is taken to scale it up nationwide.
Africa Education Watch's Executive Director, Kofi Asare, has advocated for testing the implementation of Chinese language in some Ghanaian public schools before considering a nationwide rollout. Asare believes that a pilot program is essential to evaluate the language's effectiveness and relevance within the country's basic education system. On Joy FM's Newsnight, he stated, "We have to pilot it and the outcomes of the pilots determine whether we scale up or not."
Mr. Asare pointed out that a groundwork for teaching Mandarin already exists in Ghana, with the language already offered in select schools and universities. Over the past decade, more than 15,000 Ghanaians have been trained in Mandarin thanks to collaborations between the Confucius Institute at the University of Ghana and the University of Cape Coast. "There's nothing wrong with piloting a language already being introduced in our tertiary institutions, where over 15,000 have been trained in the past ten years," he said.
Asare argued that piloting Chinese in public schools could help bridge the gap in access to subjects that are more readily available in private schools. He noted that Chinese, among several competitive subjects, is accessible to parents who can afford private education for their children. "If we have an opportunity to pilot one of these competitive subjects, I don’t think that we should object to it at all. We should embrace the opportunity and pilot it," he stated.
The pilot's outcome will determine the subsequent course of action. "If the pilot’s outcome suggests that it is worthy of application in public schools, fine. If the pilot’s outcome shows otherwise, then we overhaul," Asare concluded. His remarks come amid a heated discussion surrounding the Education Minister's proposal to introduce Arabic and Chinese in Ghanaian schools. Stakeholders remain divided on the necessity, scope, and implementation of the policy, while the government maintains that no such policy exists.
Written by urgent.news from MyJoyOnline Ghana's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
