|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Claim: Posts on social media claim Ghana has officially removed English as its primary language of instruction in schools.
Verdict: False, Ghana has not removed English as the primary language of instruction in schools. Instead, the education minister’s directive to use the learners’ tongue as the language of instruction applied only to pupils in the lower primary. Specifically, it is for those from Kindergarten to Primary 3. The aim is to make it easier for them to understand.
Full Text
Ghana’s Minister of Education, Haruna Iddrisu, recently issued a directive to the Ghana Education Service (GES) to ensure the full implementation of mother-tongue instruction across all schools in the country on October 25, 2025.
Shortly after the directive, a news publication alleged “Ghana Replaces English with Local Languages as Medium of Instruction in Schools.” A number of Pages on Facebook, here and here, and here on Instagram, published the same claim.
The first paragraph of the news publication reads “Ghana has officially removed English as the primary language of instruction in schools, mandating the use of local Ghanaian languages across all basic education institutions. The directive, announced by Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu on 25 October 2025, marks a historic shift in the country’s education policy and aims to improve learning outcomes and cultural identity.”
DUBAWA decided to investigate this claim due to its potential to mislead.
Verification
On the contrary, the directive was not to remove English entirely as the language of instruction in schools, but rather to incorporate local languages into teaching in the country.
Over the years, Ghana’s basic schools have adopted a no-local-language policy, imposing punitive measures on pupils who speak their local dialects.
The minister’s directive is to change that and give the pupils the right to express themselves in local languages as well, and not to stop the use of the English language as the language of instruction.
In response to the misinformation that circulated, the Ministry of Education released a statement to dismiss the claim.
The Deputy Minister for Education, Dr Clement Abas Apaak, also said, in a public gathering, that the Minister for Education, Haruna Iddrisu, asked him to clarify that the policy directive he announced regarding the compulsory use of mother tongue as a medium of instruction in public basic schools is confined to Kindergarten up to Primary 3.
Conclusion
Based on the Ministry of Education’s statements, it is clear that Ghana has not cancelled the use of English as the primary language of instruction in schools. On the contrary, the directive applies only to pupils in the lower primary, specifically from Kindergarten to Primary 3.
