Speak local dialect with wards-parents advised

Mr Peter Marfo addressing participants at the Nyansapo Afehye held in Koforidua

The Acting Director of the Centre for National Culture(CNC) in the Eastern region, Mr Peter Kofi Marfo has called on parents to teach and speak the local dialect with their children as it gives them solid foun­dation and proper identity.

According to him, many parents in the country have abandoned their local languages and rather speak English language with their wards at home.

“The main ethnic identity is the native language teaching the chil­dren the local language and speak­ing with them at home would enable them identify themselves as Ghana­ians become good learners of other languages, he disclosed.

Mr Marfo was speaking at this year’s Nyansapͻ Afahyε Festival and competition organised by the CNC in Koforidua on the theme: “The Mother Tongue, a solid foundation that can influence the state cultural value.”

Several schools in Koforidua in­cluding King of Kings School,Samplex Education Complex, Aspire Educa­tional Institute, Laders International School, Aggrey Development Cen­tre, Lizben Educational Complex, Brentford International Academy, and South Harbour Christian Acade­my participated in the festival and competition sponsored by P&F Ven­tures gold store operators and Kwaku Okyere Company Limited, producers of drinks.

The pupils as part of the festival and competition recited poems in the local dialects used proverbs, idiom­atic expressions and identified some Adinkra symbols.

“The local language ensures the preservation of our distinct cultural values and heritage hence we should endeavour to teach and speak the local languages with our children,” he said.

He noted that some parents spoke the English language with their wards for fear that their wards would not be academically good however, he stated that children who were first taught in the local dialects become better learners.

For her part, the Municipal Cul­tural Officer at the New Juaben South Municipal Assembly, Madam Agnes Nyarko has called on heads of schools, especially private schools to make it an option for pupils to speak their local dialect during recreational periods.

She said the mother tongue was the fundamental way to influence the youth to cherish and understand the good morals of the country and hence appealed to parents and heads of educational institutions to allow the children to speak the local dia­lects to enable them express them­selvesbetter.

At the end of the competition and festival, Aggrey Development School emerged first, Aspire Educational Complex took the second position and Samplex Educational Complex took third position.

 From Ama Tekyiwaa Ampadu Agyeman, Koforidua