The Ministry of Education has dismissed claims that it intends to impose the teaching of Arabic on students in Ghanaian public schools.
The Ministry says there is no policy or directive requiring Ghanaian students to study Arabic as a compulsory subject.
In a statement issued on behalf of the Minister for Education, Haruna Iddrisu, the Ministry described reports suggesting that the Minister is seeking to impose Arabic on Ghanaian students as “misinformation and misconception circulating in the public domain.”
“The Ministry wishes to state categorically that there is no policy or directive to impose the study of Arabic on Ghanaian students,” the statement dated August 11, said.
The Ministry also sought to separate the teaching of Arabic from religious instruction, stressing that the language should not automatically be associated with the promotion of any particular faith.
“For the avoidance of doubt, Arabic is a language, not a religion,” the Ministry stated. “The teaching and learning of Arabic should therefore not be misconstrued as the promotion or imposition of any religious belief.”
Curriculum predates current Education Minister
The Ministry further clarified that the development of a standardised curriculum for Arabic did not originate from the current Education Minister.
According to the Ministry, the process “predates the appointment of Honourable Haruna Iddrisu as Minister for Education” and began with a revision of the curriculum at the senior high school level approximately four years ago.
It explained that Arabic has been taught in English-Arabic and Islamic schools in Ghana for several decades following its recognition as part of the primary school curriculum.
However, the Ministry said there had previously been no single, officially approved curriculum governing the teaching of Arabic across these schools.
“Hitherto, the teaching and learning of Arabic in these schools have been without any officially approved standardised curricula for all the schools,” the statement explained. “Each school has been implementing its own Arabic curriculum.”
The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA), as part of its mandate, subsequently developed a standardised Arabic language curriculum to provide consistency in the teaching and learning of the language.
Arabic curriculum not compulsory
The Ministry stressed that the new curriculum is intended for specific schools already offering Arabic and for other public primary schools that may voluntarily choose to adopt it.
“NaCCA’s recommendation to the Honourable Minister, for the adoption of this new Arabic language curriculum was therefore meant for only these schools and any other public primary school, which may want to implement it in the future,” the statement said.
“It was never meant to make the language a mandatory or compulsory subject in our primary schools.”
The Ministry also rejected suggestions that the initiative is a personal project of Mr Iddrisu.
“It is therefore important to emphasise that the teaching of the language in our public schools was initiated years ago before the current Minister for Education assumed office and is not a personal initiative of the Honourable Minister,” it said.
The Ministry noted that there are already “hundreds of Islamic schools across the country where Arabic is taught,” primarily to meet the educational and linguistic needs of their communities.
It said the standardised curriculum is intended to improve the structure, consistency and quality of Arabic language education.
By Daniel Opoku
