The New Patriotic Party (NPP) is questioning how Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu could announce a major policy on Arabic and Chinese while President John Dramani Mahama now says no such policy was approved.
The NPP’s Education Sector Policy Committee says Iddrisu publicly announced on April 24 that Chinese and Arabic would become compulsory foreign languages at the secondary school level and linked the policy to President Mahama’s vision for education.
The party says the Education Ministry subsequently instructed the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA) to undertake the necessary curriculum work.
According to the NPP, NaCCA engaged about 160 writers and reviewers over several months before presenting the revised curriculum to Iddrisu on July 22.
The party says the Minister did not reject the document or indicate that NaCCA had acted without authority. Instead, he referred it to the Ghana Education Service and directed the GES to prepare for full implementation.
The NPP further points to the September 3 training of teachers by NaCCA, with support from the Confucius Institute at the University of Cape Coast, as another indication that the process had progressed beyond an initial announcement.
President Mahama has since denied approving any new policy introducing Arabic and Chinese in Ghanaian schools.
The NPP says that position leaves the public with a clear question about how the Education Ministry and agencies under it were able to move the process forward.
The party argues that when a Minister publicly attributes a policy direction to the President and government institutions subsequently work on it, the public is entitled to know what authority existed for those actions.
The NPP says the government must therefore explain what was approved, what was not approved and why the Education Ministry proceeded with the curriculum development and implementation preparations.
The party says the explanation is necessary to resolve the contradiction between the Education Minister’s earlier announcement and the President’s subsequent denial.
