A former head of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA), Dr Prince Hamid Armah, has challenged President John Mahama’s claim that there was never a policy to introduce Arabic and Chinese as foreign languages in Ghanaian schools.

President Mahama recently said the matter should be put to rest because Cabinet had not approved any such policy.

But Dr Armah, a former Deputy Housing Minister and Kwesimintim MP, says actions by the Education Ministry and its agencies tell a different story.

He said Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu had publicly announced 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.

According to Dr Armah, Mr Iddrisu subsequently commissioned NaCCA to develop the curriculum, which led to the mobilisation of 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.

He said the Minister then referred the curriculum to the Ghana Education Service (GES) for review ahead of implementation.

Dr Armah argued that the government’s position changed only after questions began emerging about the proposed policy.

“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.

He further claimed that NaCCA had trained teachers to implement the new Chinese curriculum shortly before President Mahama’s “no policy” statement.

“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.

Dr Armah also questioned why the government would advance the policy to the teacher-training stage without first addressing concerns about the availability of Chinese-language teachers.

“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 said.

He maintained that the absence of Cabinet approval does not invalidate the work already undertaken by government institutions.

“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.