Dr. Prince Hamid Armah
Former Deputy Housing Minister and Member of Parliament for Kwesimintim, Dr. Prince Hamid Armah, has challenged claims by President John Dramani Mahama there was never a policy to introduce Arabic and Chinese into Ghana’s schools and that the matter should be put to rest because Cabinet has not approved it.
Dr. Armah believe the facts on the ground tell a completely different story.
He said before the president’s statement, Education Minister, Haruna Iddrisu, had announced in public that Chinese and Arabic would become 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,” he said.
Dr. Armah, who is also a former head of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA), said Mr. Iddrisu commissioned NaCCA to do the work with NaCCA assembling 160 writers and reviewers.
“In July 2026, that curriculum was finished and formally presented to the Minister. Inside it – Arabic and Chinese as foreign language options,” he noted.
Dr. Armah said the Minister referred it to the Ghana Education Service (GES) for review ahead of final implementation only to make a turn when Ghanaians started asking questions.
“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 noted that on September 3, 2026 – just days before the President’s “no policy” claim, NaCCA trained teachers to implement the new Chinese curriculum.
“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? Who authorised NaCCA to mobilise 160 experts and spend months developing a curriculum? Who authorised the use of public resources for that exercise? Who authorised the referral to GES and the nationwide training of teachers for a policy that did not exist?,” he asked .
“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? Cabinet approval may be the final step, but Cabinet approval does not erase the months of work that happened before it,” Dr. Armah.
He thus stressed that the government cannot commission a policy, develop it, present it, defend it as “optional”, train teachers for it, and then turn around to tell Ghanaians it never existed.
“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,” he said.
A Daily Guide Report