The Dilemma of Language in Education Policies in Ghana and Tanzania

This paper examines language policies of Ghana and Tanzania (former British Colonies) since independence. The view that language use in education is a problem for African countries is evident in the ever changing language in education policies in many African countries. Because of the inevitable multilingual situation in many African countries, there are unavoidable challenges in their quest to adopt a language policy that works for the entire country since it is not practical to adopt all the languages spoken in the country as Media of Instruction. Ghana is not immune to this challenge and has fallen victim to this tendency to change the language in education policy from time to time in an attempt to adopt a satisfactory policy which would yield the intended results. Tanzania, however, is one of the few African countries that have found a sustainable language in education policy since independence. Nonetheless, it has its fair share of challenges as a consequence of the perceived competition between Kiswahili and English as official languages. The paper discusses the challenges that both Ghana and Tanzania face against the background of colonization. The paper also offers a discussion on possible future perspectives for the two countries.