The Ministry of Education has denied claims that the Minister for Education, Haruna Iddrisu, is seeking to impose the teaching of Arabic on Ghanaian students.
The Ministry said there is no policy or directive to make Arabic compulsory for Ghanaian students.
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It clarified that Arabic is a language and not a religion, and that its teaching and learning should not be misconstrued as the promotion or imposition of any religious belief.
The Ministry said the process to develop a standardised curriculum for teaching and learning Arabic predates the appointment of Haruna Iddrisu as Minister for Education and began with the revision of the curriculum at the senior high school level about four years ago.
It explained that the official recognition of Arabic as part of the primary school curriculum led to the establishment of English-Arabic or Islamic schools in the country several decades ago.
However, the teaching and learning of Arabic in these schools had been conducted without an officially approved standardised curriculum, with individual schools implementing their own curricula.
The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA), as part of its mandate, therefore developed a standardised official Arabic language curriculum to regulate its teaching and learning in these schools.
The Ministry said NaCCA’s recommendation to adopt the curriculum was intended only for these schools and any other public primary school that may choose to implement it in the future.
It was not intended to make Arabic a mandatory or compulsory subject in public primary schools.
The Ministry stressed that the teaching of Arabic in public schools began years before the current Minister for Education assumed office and is not his personal initiative.
It said hundreds of Islamic schools across the country already teach Arabic, primarily in response to the educational and linguistic needs of their communities.
The Ministry said the standardised curriculum is intended to provide structure, consistency and quality assurance for the teaching and learning of Arabic.
It reiterated that Arabic is not a compulsory subject for Ghanaian students generally and that the development of a standardised curriculum does not make it compulsory for non-Muslim students or amount to an attempt to impose any religion on Ghanaian learners.
Arabic, like French and other foreign languages apart from English, remains an optional subject in public schools.
The Ministry urged the public, media practitioners and stakeholders to verify information from authoritative sources before drawing conclusions or circulating claims that could create fear, misunderstanding or religious tension.
