Before We Teach Our Children Chinese, Let Us First Teach Them Ghana – Ms. Sark Life Coach

Mr. President John Mahama, Before We Teach Our Children Chinese, Let Us First
Teach Them Ghana
By: Alice Frimpong Sarkodie

Mr. President,
Permit me to write to you, as an educator whose heart burns for the future of Ghana. The proposal to introduce Chinese language into Ghana’s school curriculum has generated excitement in many circles.

I understand why. China is one of the world’s great economic success stories, a major trading partner, and a nation from which we can learn valuable lessons in discipline, industrialization, infrastructure, and long-term planning.

This article is therefore not an argument against China but an appeal for Ghana. Education is more than a collection of subjects. It is a declaration of national priorities. Every lesson we teach tells our children what we believe is worth knowing, preserving, and pursuing.

My fear is not that our children will learn Chinese. My fear is that they will graduate knowing
more about opportunities abroad than the possibilities beneath their own feet.

Curiosity follows exposure. The more we expose children to a language, the more they become curious about the people, culture, economy, and opportunities connected to it. There is nothing wrong with that. The problem arises when we fail to create equal curiosity about our own nation.

A few years ago, I met a European who described herself as a chocolate engineer. I was stunned. How is it that nations thousands of miles away produce chocolate engineers while many children in one of the world’s leading cocoa-producing countries are never introduced to the science, engineering, technology, and innovation behind cocoa?

How did we become exporters of raw materials but importers of expertise? Our grandparents understood the cocoa tree in ways many of us no longer do. They knew how to use almost every part of it. Yet instead of studying, improving, and expanding that knowledge through science and innovation, we have gradually disconnected education from our own environment.

The same can be said of gold, palm, shea, cassava, bamboo, and countless other resources with enormous untapped potential.

Mr. President, what if every Ghanaian child graduated with the ambition to become a cocoa engineer, a shea scientist, a bamboo architect, a food technologist, a mineral innovator, or an agricultural entrepreneur?

What if our classrooms inspired children to ask, What can I build for Ghana? before asking, where can I leave Ghana?

This is not a rejection of globalization. I believe deeply in international cooperation. Humanity advances when nations learn from one another. But healthy cooperation is built on mutual contribution, not one-sided dependence.

Africa does not need isolation. Africa needs balance. We should learn from China, trade with China, and partner with China. But we must never neglect the responsibility of helping our children first discover the wealth, wisdom, history,
and opportunities of Ghana itself.

A nation that does not teach its children to value what it possesses will eventually depend on others to define its value.

Mr. President, before making Chinese language a national educational priority, I respectfully
urge us to reflect on twenty questions of priority:

1. Have we solved our foundational literacy and numeracy challenges?
2. Have we fully developed Ghana’s own knowledge system?
3. Have we given Ghanaian languages the attention they deserve?
4. Should education not begin with our own environment?
5. Why don’t we teach the science behind Ghana’s natural resources?
6. Are we educating creators or mere consumers?
7. What curiosity are we nurturing through curriculum?
8. Are our educational resources being used wisely?
9. Do our children know enough about Ghana’s great thinkers?
10. Why isn’t indigenous knowledge studied scientifically?
11. Why don’t we teach agriculture as innovation and industry?
12. Where are Ghana’s cocoa engineers and value-chain experts?
13. Can we engage the world confidently without knowing ourselves?
14. Have we considered that languages also carries culture and influence?
15. Will foreign languages alone transform Ghana’s economy?
16. Does our curriculum reflect Ghana’s future needs
17. Can true interdependence exist without national strength?
18. Does our education reduce dependency or deepen it?
19. Should Chinese be an elective rather than a national priority?
20. Before teaching our children another civilization, have we truly taught them Ghana?

Mr. President, I do not ask that we reject the world. I ask that we first rediscover ourselves. For when Ghanaian children know the value of Ghana, they will engage the world not as dependents, but as contributors.

Written by: Alice Frimpong Sarkodie
(Ms. Sark, Life Coach)
Director – Nobel Heights School