Ghana Education Ministry denies making Arabic compulsory

Ghana’s Ministry of Education has dismissed reports claiming that Arabic will be made a compulsory subject in the country’s basic education system. Officials clarified that the language remains an optional subject, similar to French, Spanish, or Latin.

The clarification follows recommendations from the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA) to implement a standardized Arabic curriculum. This initiative aims to provide consistency and quality assurance for schools that already offer the language, such as English-Arabic or Islamic schools, which have previously used varying teaching methods.

The Ministry emphasized that the development of this curriculum is not an attempt to impose any religion on students, but rather an effort to organize the teaching of Arabic as a language. Officials noted that the process of reviewing the curriculum began several years ago and is not a personal initiative of the current Minister for Education, Haruna Iddrisu.