The Ministry of Education (MoE) has rejected claims that the Minister for Education, Haruna Iddrisu, is seeking to impose the teaching of Arabic on Ghanaian students.

The Ministry has categorically stated that there is no policy or directive to impose the study of Arabic on Ghanaian students, adding that Arabic is a language, not a religion.

"The teaching and learning of Arabic should therefore not be misconstrued as the promotion or imposition of any religious belief," the statement signed by Hashmin Mohammed, Press Secretary to the Honourable Minister said.

The Ministry clarified that the process to develop a standardised curriculum for the teaching and learning of Arabic predates the appointment of Hon. Haruna Iddrisu as Minister for Education. It revealed that this process began with the revision of the curriculum at the Senior High School (SHS) level some four years ago.

"The official recognition of Arabic, as part of the primary school curriculum led to the establishment of English-Arabic or Islamic schools in the country some decades ago.

"Hitherto, the teaching and learning of Arabic in these schools have been without any officially approved standardised curricula for all the schools. Each school has been implementing its own Arabic curriculum," it rejected.

The MoE noted that the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA), as part of its mandate, therefore developed a unitary and standardised official Arabic language curriculum to regulate its teaching and learning in these schools.

According to the statement, NaCCA's recommendation to the Honourable Minister for the adoption of this new Arabic language curriculum was intended only for these schools and any other public primary school which may want to implement it in the future.

It affirmed that this was never meant to make the language a mandatory or compulsory subject in primary schools.

"It is therefore important to emphasise that the teaching of the language in our public schools was initiated years ago before the current Minister for Education assumed office and is not a personal initiative of the Honourable Minister.

"Indeed, there are already hundreds of Islamic schools across the country where Arabic is taught, primarily in response to the educational and linguistic needs of their communities.

"The development of a standardised curriculum is intended to provide appropriate structure, consistency and quality assurance for the teaching and learning of the language.," MoH assured.

The Ministry reaffirmed that Arabic is not a compulsory subject for Ghanaian students generally, stating that the development of a standardised curriculum does not amount to making Arabic compulsory for non-Muslim students, nor does it constitute an attempt to impose any religion on Ghanaian learners.

"Indeed, Arabic, just like French or any other foreign language, apart from the English language remains an optional subject in our public schools."

The Ministry therefore urged the public, media practitioners and all stakeholders to verify information from authoritative sources before drawing conclusions or circulating claims that may unnecessarily create fear, misunderstanding or religious tension.