Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum
Former Minister of Education, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, has called for the continuous retraining of teachers to enable them to deal with the growing influence of social media language on students’ academic work.
He said the use of informal expressions and social media jargon in the 2026 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) should prompt schools to strengthen classroom supervision, teacher development and academic counselling.
In an interview with JoyNews yesterday, Dr. Adutwum said teachers had a critical role to play in helping students understand the difference between informal communication and the language required in academic settings.
He said the situation did not constitute a crisis but presented an opportunity for the education system to improve the professional development of teachers.
“I don’t think the sky is falling. It’s not the end of the world, but it’s an opportunity for teacher retraining, professional development,” he said.
Dr. Adutwum explained that teachers should be able to identify instances where students use inappropriate social media expressions in their schoolwork and correct them before they become established habits.
He advocated continuous professional development programmes and professional learning communities through which teachers could share experiences and discuss emerging challenges affecting students.
“These issues can be discussed there, for teachers to then go back to their classrooms and be able to spot these things and advise students,” he said.
According to him, the problem should be addressed long before students entered the examination hall, arguing that classroom exercises and internal examinations provided opportunities for teachers to detect weaknesses in students’ use of formal language.
He said students who repeatedly used social media expressions in their academic work needed to be guided on the consequences of carrying such habits into external examinations.
Dr. Adutwum also emphasised the importance of strengthening guidance and counselling in schools to help students develop a clear understanding of when informal language was appropriate and when formal language was required.
He said a coordinated approach involving teacher retraining, regular assessment and academic counselling would help schools respond effectively to the influence of social media on students’ writing.
The former minister said strengthening these areas would enable teachers to intervene early and help prevent the use of social media jargon from affecting students’ performance in future examinations.
A Daily Guide Report