ABSTRACT
There is a worldwide growing interest in young children’s indigenous literacy development, especially in the global South. This interest is heightened in countries with a colonial past where indigenous languages and literacy practices used at home are different from the colonial languages used in education. Young children’s literacy learning in Ghana has long been associated with the language policy which spells out the language of instruction and learning in school. The policy is sometimes different in lower grade depending on the policy of the government of the day. Some postcolonial governments in Ghana appear to favour English rather than children’s home language or mother tongue. The introduction of Western-style education by European traders in the precolonial era marked the beginning of the use of European languages in the education of indigenous children. Although the country continues to make much progress in education, the language of instruction and literacy development remains a debatable subject. This chapter provides, therefore, a brief introduction to Western-style education before Ghana’s independence in 1957 and the progress made in education thereafter. It sets the tone for the next chapter on the impact of colonial rule on language policies in the lower grades in Chapter 2.
