The Ministry of Education has denied claims that it is seeking to make the teaching and learning of Arabic compulsory in Ghanaian schools.
It said reports circulating in the public domain were misleading and could create misconceptions among the public.
In a statement signed by the Press Secretary to the Minister of Education, Hashmin Mohammed, and copied to The Ghanaian Times yesterday, the Ministry said Arabic was an optional language subject, similar to French and other foreign languages.
It said the development of a standardised curriculum for Arabic was intended to regulate and improve the quality of instruction in schools where the language was already being taught.
“There is no policy or directive to impose the study of Arabic on Ghanaian students,” the statement said.
The Ministry also stressed that Arabic was a language and should not be misconstrued as a religion or an attempt to promote or impose any religious belief on Ghanaian learners.
It said the process of developing a standardised curriculum for Arabic predated the appointment of Haruna Iddrisu as Minister of Education.
According to the Ministry, the process began with the revision of the curriculum at the senior high school level about four years ago.
It said the official recognition of Arabic as part of the primary school curriculum had led to the establishment of English-Arabic or Islamic schools in the country several decades ago.
However, the teaching and learning of Arabic in those schools had been conducted without an officially approved standardised curriculum, with individual schools developing and implementing their own curricula.
The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA), as part of its mandate, therefore developed a unified and standardised Arabic language curriculum to regulate the teaching and learning of the language in such schools.
The Ministry said NaCCA’s recommendation to the Minister for the adoption of the new curriculum was intended for existing English-Arabic or Islamic schools and any other public primary schools that might choose to implement it in the future.
“It was never meant to make the language a mandatory or compulsory subject in our primary schools,” the statement said.
The Ministry stressed that the teaching of Arabic in public schools was initiated years before Mr Iddrisu assumed office and was therefore not a personal initiative of the Minister.
It noted that hundreds of Islamic schools across the country already taught Arabic to meet the educational and linguistic needs of their communities.
The Ministry said the standardised curriculum was intended to provide structure, consistency and quality assurance in the teaching and learning of Arabic.
It therefore urged the public, media practitioners and other stakeholders to verify information from authoritative sources before circulating claims that could create unnecessary fear, misunderstanding or religious tension.
The Ministry reiterated that Arabic remained an optional subject in public schools and was not compulsory for Ghanaian students generally.
BY TIMES REPORTER
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