Ghana is a highly multilingual country with over forty indigenous languages spoken within its borders. This paper analysis the extent to which the complexities of this multilingual nature of the country has affected school language policies that have been implemented in the country by various governments. Instead of discussing such policies in a chronological order, the paper reveals their fluctuating nature by categorising them. The mode of implementation of the various policies, the rationales provided by various governments in changing existing policies, and the eventual effects of the policies on student learning have all been discussed. Contrasting the Ghanaian situation with the US, the paper brings out differences in the way school language policies have been enacted, in the hope that policy makers in Ghana could be exposed to other approaches to school language policy enactments. The paper concludes by providing suggestions towards improving how school language policies could be enacted and implemented in Ghana.
Keywords: Early exit transitional bilingual policies, Immersion policies, Mother tongue policies, National Literacy Acceleration Program (NALAP)., School language policy
