Source: James Kweku Baako
A group of Likpakpain students and a union of lecturers of Konkomba origin drawn from the Ajumako and sister campuses of the University of Education, Winneba, have made a clarion call to the government through the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service to incorporate the study of the Likpakpain language into the curriculum of examinable subjects of in the first and second cycles of education in the country.
The staff and students from the Konkomba communities appealed during a visit to the UEW Ajumako campus.
The Likpakpain language is one of the Ghanaian languages spoken widely among the Konkombas in the country’s Northern Region. It is also spoken in the Brong, Volta, Eastern, and Greater Accra regions.
A recent population census conducted in the Likpakpain Community shows that there are over Six Hundred and Forty-One Thousand (641,000) people in the area.
The main occupation of the people is farming and hunting.
The only Likpakpain lecturer on the Ajumako campus of the University of Education, Winneba, Dr. Abraham Kwesi Bisilki, in his welcome address, commended all Konkomba students and lecturers present for making the event a success. He, however, expressed regret that the Likpakpain has still not been included in the languages offered in the first and second-cycle institutions after three years of being introduced on the Ajumako campus of the UEW.
He used the occasion to plead with the government through the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service to help make the study of the Likpakpain language examinable in both the Basic Education Certificate Examination and the West African Senior School Certificate Examination.
Dr. Basilki humbly requested Ghanaians to come to the aid of the university by donating learning and infrastructural resources to boost students’ academic performance and improve the quality of the learning environment.
The National Coordinator of the Likpakpain Community, Dr. Bernard Bekuni Bowae Bingab, who doubles as the Senior lecturer at the School of Science Management, stressed the need for the study of the Likpakpain language in the nation’s educational institutions to make the offering of the Likpakpain language on the Ajumako campus more meaningful.
He disclosed that much as the management of the UEW did not authorize him to speak for the University, his findings showed that most of the Likpakpain language students are overwhelmed by the lack of adequate educational resources. He, therefore, called on all well-to-do Ghanaians to lend a helping hand towards the development of the school.
A lecturer at the Guidance and Counseling Department of the UEW main campus, Joshua Upoalkpajor, and another member of the Likpakpain Community in charge of Quality assurance at the UEW added their voices, calling on stakeholders of the GES to help make the study of the Likpakpain language examinable. According to them, the policy, when implemented, will enable graduates from the university to educate others to read and write the Likpakpain language with ease. The two also used the event to advise the students to desist from engaging in social vices while pursuing their education.
The rich display of the Konkomba songs and dances characterized the event.
