Has Ghana Officially Removed English Language in Schools’ Curriculum?
On October 26, 2025, an X user @Joe_Bassey claimed that the Ghanaian government has abolished the use of English in all schools and replaced it with indigenous languages. The post had a graphic post from “AFRIKA WORLD,” showing an image of Ghanaian President, John Mahama, a learning group and the Ghanaian flag, with the inscription, “Ghana officially removes English as the main language of instruction in schools.” The caption on the post reads, “Incredible, every African countries needs to emulate Ghana in this by embracing their languages as a medium of instruction while English can serve as a subject.”
When this report was published, this claim had about 500,000 views and over 17,200 replies, reposts, quotes, likes and bookmarks. In the comment section, @tingabrooke said “So we can have smart primitive people like what we got in Ethiopia ??” and @reinny_b wrote “Not entirely accurate! Local languages could be used together with English”.
VERIFICATION
On October 24, 2025, Ghana’s Minister of Education Haruna Iddrisu gave a directive that the use of mother tongue as a means of instruction is now compulsory in all Basic Schools in the country. This directive was given during the official launch of the Free Tertiary Education for People with Disabilities, PWDs by President John Dramani Mahama. The directive is part of the efforts to improve teaching in the country.
However, this directive applies only to basic schools including KG to Basic three
and does not extend to junior or senior secondary schools. Moreover, there is no official statement or government ministry confirming that English has been entirely removed as a language of instruction at all educational levels.
Further checks on the image which has the “Afrika World” branding revealed that this graphic was posted on the afrika.world instagram page. However, the slide post and the caption explicitly states that this policy is mainly for basic schools.
CONCLUSION
The claim that Ghana officially removes English as the main language of instruction in schools is MISLEADING. Ghana has not removed English as a language of instruction. Instead, the Ghanaian government through the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service recently reaffirmed and enforced its long-standing policy that encourages the use of local languages as the medium of instruction in lower primary education (Kindergarten to Primary 3).
