Mr Alban Bagbin, the Speaker of Parliament, says plans are underway to make a technological transformation of the Chamber to adapt the use of local languages during proceedings at the next Meeting of Parliament.
He said: “What we will do is, during the next recess, we will transform this Chamber, and we will try to put these IT systems in place and employ people to help us understand each other because we will encourage members to speak in the local languages.”
Mr Bagbin made the remarks when Mr Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, a National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament (MP) for Ellembele called for the inclusion of the Nzema language in the curriculum of Colleges of Education in the Western Region on Thursday.
Making a statement titled: “The Problems Confronting the Promotion and Development of the Nzema Language” on the Floor of the House, Mr Buah explained that the inclusion of the Nezema language would enable the Colleges of Education to train teachers of Nzema for Nzema schools.
He said though Nzema was the major Ghanaian language studied at the basic level in the Western Region, it was not included in the curriculum of the three Colleges of Education in the Western Region.
“As a result, Nzema students who desire to study the language in any of these institutions, are compelled to study either Mfantse or Twi at the expense of their preferred Nzema,” Mr Buah, also a Deputy Minority Leader said.
Mr Bagbin commenting on the statement directed the Education, Finance, Culture, and Tourism Committees of Parliament to inquire into factors that showed a decline in the local language usage in the country and provide appropriate recommendations for consideration.
Some MPs also raised concerns about the abandonment of local languages, especially in schools across the country, and called for urgent actions to fix the development they described as “disturbing.”
GNA