Education Ministry Denies Plans to Make Arabic Compulsory
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Education Ministry denies plans to make Arabic compulsory in schools
The Ministry of Education has dismissed reports that it plans to make Arabic a compulsory subject in Ghanaian public schools, describing the claims as misinformation and a misconception circulating in the public domain.
In a statement issued on behalf of the Minister for Education, Haruna Iddrisu, on August 11, 2026, the Ministry said there is no policy or directive requiring Ghanaian students to study Arabic as a compulsory subject.
“The Ministry wishes to state categorically that there is no policy or directive to impose the study of Arabic on Ghanaian students,” the statement said.
The Ministry also clarified that the teaching of Arabic should not automatically be associated with religious instruction, stressing that the language is distinct from any particular religion.
“For the avoidance of doubt, Arabic is a language, not a religion,” the Ministry stated.
Arabic curriculum predates current Minister
The Ministry further explained that the development of a standardised curriculum for Arabic did not originate from the current Education Minister.
According to the statement, the process predates the appointment of Haruna Iddrisu and began with a revision of the curriculum at the senior high school level approximately four years ago.
Arabic has been taught in English-Arabic and Islamic schools in Ghana for several decades after being recognised as part of the primary school curriculum.
However, the Ministry said there had previously been no single officially approved curriculum governing the teaching of Arabic across the various schools.
Instead, individual schools developed and implemented their own Arabic curricula.
The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA), in line with its mandate, subsequently developed a standardised Arabic language curriculum to provide greater consistency in the teaching and learning of the language.
Arabic curriculum is not compulsory
The Ministry stressed that the standardised curriculum is intended primarily for schools that already offer Arabic, as well as other public primary schools that may voluntarily choose to adopt it.
It said NaCCA’s recommendation to adopt the curriculum was not intended to make Arabic a mandatory subject in Ghanaian public schools.
“It was never meant to make the language a mandatory or compulsory subject in our primary schools,” the Ministry stated.
The Ministry also rejected claims that the initiative was a personal project of Haruna Iddrisu, noting that Arabic education in Ghanaian schools predates his appointment as Education Minister.
It pointed out that hundreds of Islamic schools across the country already teach Arabic, primarily to meet the educational and linguistic needs of their communities.
The Ministry said the standardised curriculum is instead aimed at improving the structure, consistency and quality of Arabic language education in schools that choose to offer the subject.
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