A former Director-General of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA), Dr Prince Hamid Armah, has challenged President John Dramani Mahama’s assertion that there has never been a government policy to introduce Arabic and Chinese as foreign languages in Ghanaian schools.
President Mahama recently called for the issue to be put to rest, insisting that Cabinet had not approved any policy to make the two languages part of the school curriculum.
However, Dr Armah, a former Deputy Minister for Housing and Member of Parliament for Kwesimintim, argues that actions taken by the Ministry of Education and its agencies point to the existence of a policy initiative that had already progressed significantly.
According to him, Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu publicly announced that Chinese and Arabic would be introduced as compulsory foreign languages at the secondary school level.
“He did not whisper it. He linked it directly to the President’s own vision. By then, the wheels were already turning. This was not social media rumour. This was government policy in motion – commissioned, developed, presented, referred and taught,” Dr Armah said.
Curriculum development
Dr Armah claimed that following the Minister’s announcement, Mr Iddrisu commissioned NaCCA to develop the relevant curriculum.
He said the process involved the mobilisation of 160 writers and reviewers to work on the curriculum.
“In July 2026, that curriculum was finished and formally presented to the Minister. Inside it – Arabic and Chinese as foreign language options,” he said.
According to Dr Armah, the Minister subsequently referred the completed curriculum to the Ghana Education Service (GES) for review ahead of its implementation.
He argued that the government’s position changed only after questions began to emerge over the proposed introduction of the languages.
“When Ghanaians started asking questions, government did not say ‘we never considered this.’ Its defence was different: at the basic level, the languages would be optional, not compulsory. An admission that the policy existed,” he said.
Dr Armah further alleged that NaCCA had trained teachers to implement the new Chinese curriculum shortly before President Mahama made his comments denying the existence of a new policy.
Questions over implementation
The former NaCCA director-general questioned the sequence of events, particularly the decision to proceed to teacher training despite concerns about the availability of qualified Chinese-language teachers.
“So what exactly is the President asking Ghanaians to put to rest? If there was ‘absolutely no new policy,’ who authorised the Minister to announce a compulsory language policy in the President’s name?” he asked.
He also questioned who authorised NaCCA to mobilise 160 experts and commit months of work to curriculum development, as well as who approved the use of public resources for the exercise.
He further asked who authorised the referral of the curriculum to the GES and the training of teachers nationwide for what the government now says was not an approved policy.
Dr Armah also challenged the rationale for moving the initiative to the teacher-training stage without first resolving questions about the availability of Chinese-language teachers.
“And if government did not know where Ghana would get Chinese teachers from – as the President himself now asks – why did it advance the policy to the point of training teachers before answering the most basic implementation question?” he said.
‘Cabinet approval does not erase work already done’
Dr Armah acknowledged that Cabinet approval could be required before a policy becomes formally binding, but argued that the absence of such approval does not negate the work already undertaken by state institutions.
“Cabinet approval may be the final step, but Cabinet approval does not erase the months of work that happened before it,” he said.
He maintained that the sequence of actions by the Education Ministry, NaCCA and GES demonstrates that the initiative had moved well beyond mere speculation.
“The record is clear: The Minister spoke. NaCCA delivered. GES received it. Teachers were trained. That is not a rumour. That is a government caught implementing a policy it now denies,” Dr Armah said.
