Category: Daily Guide Network

Aglow International has paid a heartfelt tribute to the late former First Lady of the Republic of Ghana and President of the 31st December Women’s Movement, Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, celebrating her as a trailblazer, visionary, and tireless advocate for women’s empowerment.

In a statement issued by Aglow International, the National President, Mrs. Dorothy Danso, together with the National Executive and the entire membership of Aglow, expressed deep sorrow over the passing of Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings. The statement described her as a woman of purpose and passion whose life and work profoundly transformed the lives of countless Ghanaian women.

‘On behalf of the entire Aglow family, we pray that God, the Comforter, will console and strengthen the bereaved family, her children, and all who mourn this great woman,’ Mrs. Danso said. ‘May the Almighty grant them peace, and may her legacy of service, courage, and empowerment continue to shine brightly in the hearts of women across Ghana and beyond.’

The Ministry of Education, in partnership with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Hempel Foundation, has launched the 2025 Foundational Learning Action Tracker (FLAT) in Accra.

In a joint press release, the partners explained that FLAT is a digital monitoring tool designed to accelerate progress in literacy, numeracy, and socio-emotional learning among children nationwide, and is a step in Ghana’s commitment to improving educational quality and achieving both national education goals and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The FLAT monitors national progress through the RAPID Framework, which focuses on reaching every child and keeping them in school, assessing learning levels, prioritising the teaching of fundamentals, increasing instructional efficiency, and developing psychosocial health and well-being.

According to the Ministry of Education, the 2025 FLAT will serve as a vital evidence-based tool to track progress, identify gaps, and refine education policies. It will also guide equitable resource allocation and ensure that every child in Ghana acquires the essential foundational skills needed to succeed in school and in life, the release explained.

UNICEF, in the release, stressed the urgent need for greater investment and accelerated action to strengthen foundational learning globally.

They noted that while most countries have maintained progress since the first launch of the tracker in 2023, the pace of improvement remains too slow to meet global education goals.

UNICEF emphasised that ensuring every child not only goes to school but also learns requires sustained support for teachers, classrooms, and education systems. Strong policies, they added, must be matched with substantial investments that translate national commitments into real learning gains in classrooms.

FLAT, which draws on data from 124 low- and middle-income countries, promotes global accountability for education commitments.

Its findings provide valuable insights into where progress is being made and where countries need to act faster to close learning gaps.

The data is derived from annual global RAPID surveys, offering governments, educators, and policymakers the information needed to prioritise interventions and make evidence-driven decisions.

It was noted in the release that strengthening teacher capacity, increasing classroom resources, and improving the use of learning data are critical steps toward lasting improvements in foundational learning outcomes. The introduction of the 2025 Foundational Learning Action Tracker reaffirms the country’s commitment to ensuring that every child not only attends school but also learns, grows, and thrives in an equitable and effective education system.

Over the weekend, the Minister for Education, Haruna Iddrisu, instructed the Ghana Education Service (GES) to enforce strict hair grooming rules in senior high schools, a directive that has generated significant public discussion.

Critics argue that policy attention should focus on substantive reforms rather than appearance. This article situates hair regulation within the wider educational philosophy of uniformity and shows that, when implemented fairly and with rights safeguards, grooming rules can promote social balance, focus, and collective identity.

In Ghana’s secondary schools, students come from households of both limited and substantial means. Where appearance is unregulated, social competition can intensify. Some families finance elaborate hairstyles while others cannot.

The result is what Bourdieu (1984) calls symbolic distinction, where visible markers of taste reproduce subtle hierarchies that undermine equal opportunity, contrary to Article 25(1) of the Constitution of the Republic of Ghana (1992).

Schools therefore employ uniformity in dress, grooming, and conduct to level differences and cultivate shared identity. This aligns with Jackson’s (1968) hidden curriculum, through which schools transmit norms of respect, order, and discipline, and with Durkheim’s view that moral education depends on common standards that bind individuals into a community (Durkheim, 1956).

From this perspective, hair rules support belonging and responsibility while damping status display, conditions that empirically sustain academic achievement.

Empirical work is consistent with this logic. In Ghana, Navei (2025) shows that schools view grooming as central to moral formation and institutional identity, even as tensions emerge when rules meet rights claims. In Kenya, Evans and Ngatia (2021) find that structured appearance policies, including hair codes within uniform provision, increase attendance and reduce peer-status pressures, improving classroom focus.

International practice supports the same principle. Across Britain’s comprehensive schools, Japan’s classrooms, and Singapore’s national system, appearance regulation is common, although not legally mandated or identical in form.

The guiding norm of neat and moderate hairstyles is widely institutionalised as part of discipline and school identity.

In 2021, the mother of a British-Ghanaian boy, Farouk James, publicly reported challenges securing admission for her son in England because several schools required trimmed hair for boys, illustrating how enduring and contested such expectations can be in otherwise liberal systems.

However, fairness and proportionality are essential. Courts across many contexts have held that grooming codes cannot override fundamental rights where they intersect with religion or culture.

In Antonie v Governing Body, Settlers High School (South Africa, 2002), Ex parte Makeda Mbewe and Ishmael Nansolo V Ministry of Education (Malawi, 2017-2020), and Tyron Iras Marhguy and Oheneba Nkrabea V Achimota School (Ghana, 2021), blanket hair-cutting rules were found unconstitutional when they imposed unequal burdens on students whose natural or dreadlocked hair expressed religious or cultural belief.

These decisions do not reject grooming as pedagogy; they define its constitutional limits and affirm that equality under religion and culture, not fashion or individual preference, is the legitimate basis for exception.

Hair grooming policies in our schools should therefore be viewed neither as colonial relics nor as instruments of suppression, but as elements of a broader pedagogical tradition aimed at cultivating equality, discipline, and moral purpose.

The real challenge is to interpret and enforce hair-grooming rules with sensitivity and proportionality, preserving discipline while upholding the rights and dignity of every learner. Education is meant to shape the mind, not to decorate the mirror.

The Ministry of Education has clarified the directive of the compulsory use of Ghanaian languages in teaching students across the country as announced by the sector minister, Haruna Iddrisu.

According to the ministry, the directive applies to only Kindergarten to Primary 3 (Lower Primary) levels, and not the entire basic school levels.

‘The Honourable Minister for Education has asked me to clarify that the policy directive he announced on Friday regarding the compulsory use of mother tongue as a medium of instruction in our public basic schools is confined, emphasis, confined to KG up to Primary 3.

‘In other words, KG and Lower Primary. Having clarified what seems to have given a few persons sleepless nights, I bring you greetings,’ Deputy Education Minister Clement Apaak said.

Speaking at the launch of the Foundational Learning Action Tracker on Monday, October 27, Mr. Clement Apaak said the clarification was necessary to settle the ongoing discussions.

Minister for Education, Haruna Iddrisu, has directed the Ghana Education Service (GES) to strictly enforce the use of mother tongue instruction in all Ghanaian schools.

According to the Education Minister, this directive forms part of efforts to reform the education sector, while promoting the use of local languages in teaching and learning.

Speaking at the launch of the Free Tertiary Education Programme for Persons Living with Disabilities, Mr. Iddrisu stressed that the initiative seeks to encourage the use of local languages as a medium of instruction, particularly at the basic education level, to enhance comprehension and learning outcomes.

‘I am directing the Director-General of the GES and the GES that from today, teacher use of mother tongue instruction is now compulsory in all Ghanaian schools.

‘The GES is to ensure strict enforcement of this.This is part of President Mahama’s reset agenda,’ he said.

Meanwhile, former Director-General of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA) and Lecturer at the University of Education, Winneba, Dr. Prince Hamid Armah, has reacted to the clarification saying, ‘the Education Ministry has now confirmed that the mother tongue policy applies from Kindergarten to Primary 3, consistent with Ghana’s established bilingual framework.’

He further noted, ‘This position aligns with both the National Pre-Tertiary Curriculum Framework and international evidence supporting early-grade bilingual transition models. It is precisely what I argued for: structured use of the mother tongue up to Primary 3, with Primary 4 as the pedagogical bridge to English.

‘Policy coherence matters. When directives are grounded in theory and research, public confidence grows and confusion fades.’

Academic qualifications, especially at the post-masters level, have never been so much on the spotlight.

It all started when Prof. Ahmed Jinapor Abdulai took over the headship of the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) as Director-General.

In line with the mandate of the Commission, he put some holders of certain qualifications under the microscope as it were.

It turned out that many could not defend their use of the PhDs they used for so long. They have subtly dropped the titles which they flaunted for so long with an air of hubris, especially on the political arena.

Indeed, until the GTEC crackdown, many did not know that honorary title holders can only keep these in their drawers; not to be flaunted about as many did.

The GTEC crackdown has opened our eyes and widely so.

Contained in today’s publication, there is a story about a petition questioning the man who has earned popularity and notoriety for leading the crusade against fake PhD holders; the Executive Director of GTEC whose professorship is being contested as the story suggests.

These are interesting times and the onus is on Prof. Abdulai Jinapor to prove the questioner wrong or right as the case may be.

Should the Prof. convince Ghanaians as to the appropriateness of his professorship, his integrity would be intact. In the case of the contrary, however, the negative impact would be too much for him to continue to lead the crusade against fake academic qualification holders in the country.

We doubt whether he would like to continue to hold the position should it turn out that his use of the professorship title is untenable.

He who asks for equity must come with clean hands, as the dictum goes, has come in handy under the circumstances.

The hornets’ nest has been disturbed and for us the moral lessons in these developments should not be lost, especially upon those who relish such integrity inadequacy.

While contributing to a radio discussion last Saturday, Prof. Isaac Boadi of the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA) made a wonderful submission when he said that the integrity of academic qualifications should be upheld. He added that it would be a step in the right direction if the integrity microscope is not restricted to PhDs only but expanded to include first and second degree holders.

We concur with his suggestion but wonder whether this herculean task can be accomplished. We are encouraged however that in a digitised world, no task is beyond accomplishment.

Be it as it may, we ask for a massive integrity auditing of such qualifications as suggested by Prof. Boadi, no matter how long it takes.

But before that step, let the outcome of the question about the professorship of Prof. Abdulai Jinapor be addressed and made public.

The total net credit flows have declined by 39% year-on-year, the monetary policy report for September 2025 has revealed.

According to the report the country recorded a total net credit of GHS8.660 billion in August 2025, compared with GHS14.247 billion recorded in August 2024.

The decline was driven primarily by reduced credit to the public sector, alongside a moderation in private sector credit flows as banks reallocated portfolios toward the government and Bank of Ghana securities.

Also, the report indicated that private sector credit flows amounted to GHS10.710 billion in August 2025, down from GHS14.319 billion in August 2024.

Despite this slowdown, the private sector remained the dominant recipient of credit, accounting for 95.5% of total outstanding credit in August 2025, compared with 92.7% a year earlier.

By sectoral distribution, credit flows were concentrated in the services (68.2%), commerce and finance (23.8%) and manufacturing (23.0%) sectors.

The outstanding private sector credit was GHS91.028 billion at end-August 2025, compared to GHS80.318 billion at end-August 2024.

In real terms, the private sector credit recorded a modest expansion of 1.7%, as against a contraction of 1.1% over the same period in 2024.

The growth in real sector private sector credit was, however, slightly above trend, with the deviation from trend widening marginally in August 2025, compared to the previous year.

As part of his gratitude tour to organisations that supported the recently held ShattaFest, Ghanaian dancehall artiste Shatta Wale visited Charterhouse, organisers of the Telecel Ghana Music Awards, last Saturday.

The meeting included discussions between Shatta Wale, Sammy Flex, Head of Public Relations, and Theresa Ayoade, CEO of Charterhouse, along with her executive team. The focus was on potential future collaborations.

During the meeting, Sammy Flex emphasised that the visit was a thoughtful initiative aimed at strengthening their relationship with the production giant. ‘As a team, we believed it was important to personally thank Charterhouse for their support and to foster a closer connection as we look forward to collaborating more in the future,’ Flex stated.

He also highlighted that the visit was part of a broader effort to acknowledge all major partners who played crucial roles in making ShattaFest 2025 one of the largest musical events in Ghana’s history.

This move has ignited a wave of online discussions and industry speculation, with many suggesting it could signal Shatta Wale’s potential return to the Ghana Music Awards-an event organised annually by Charterhouse.

The dancehall star has been absent from the awards for several years following his highly publicised altercation with fellow musician Stonebwoy during the 2019 edition, which resulted in a temporary ban for both artistes.

While neither Shatta Wale nor Charterhouse has confirmed any official plans regarding the awards, entertainment observers view this meeting as a promising sign of reconciliation.

The Member of Parliament (MP) for Ofoase-Ayeribi and former Minister for Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, has expressed deep concern over the government’s proposed social media bill, describing it as ‘dangerous’ and an attempt to criminalise free speech in Ghana.

According to the MP, preliminary details of the draft bill suggest it contains intrusive provisions that would allow the state to monitor online activities, track users’ IP addresses, and impose severe penalties for comments deemed offensive by government officials.

Speaking in an interview with the media, Mr. Oppong Nkrumah warned that the proposal, if passed in its current form, could roll back decades of progress the country has made in promoting media freedom and democratic discourse.

‘What we are seeing appears to be a draft, and from what I have seen as a former Information Minister, this draft is dangerous,’ he said.

‘It’s not surprising because the President himself earlier announced that the National Security apparatus would be used to go after people who make social media comments considered unfavourable. Now, his minister seems to be following up with a draft law containing those very provisions,’ he added.

The Ofoase-Ayeribi MP argued that the draft legislation would effectively reintroduce criminal sanctions for speech, an approach that many modern democracies have abandoned.

‘Over the last few decades, countries have been moving away from criminalising speech. There are enough civil remedies for offensive speech, but not every comment should attract criminal prosecution,’ he said.

He recalled that Ghana took a major democratic step forward in 2001 when the Kufuor administration repealed the Criminal Libel and Sedition laws, which had previously been used to jail journalists and silence dissent.

However, Mr. Oppong Nkrumah noted that certain laws, such as the provision on the ‘publication of false news with intent to cause fear and panic,’ remain in the nation’s statute books and continue to be used against journalists and citizens.

‘Instead of repealing those remnants of repressive laws, the government is now seeking to enact a new one that will criminalise even more forms of online expression,’ the MP warned.

‘We are moving backward, not forward. If this law is passed, even a private comment made in a WhatsApp group could be interpreted as offensive and land someone in jail,’ the former Information Minister intimated.

He cautioned that such a law would undermine public confidence in government, stifle criticism, and create a chilling effect on social and political debate. ‘This is a dangerous encroachment on the right to free speech. The government needs to tread cautiously,’ he stressed.

The MP urged the Communications Ministry to withdraw the current draft and engage in broader consultations with civil society, media stakeholders, and legal experts before proceeding.

He expressed hope that through dialogue, the government would recognise the dangers inherent in criminalising speech and instead focus on strengthening civil remedies, such as defamation and privacy laws, to address online abuse and misinformation.

‘I am hopeful that when consultations start, government will see wisdom in backtracking,’ he said and added, ‘Rather than seeking to criminalise speech further, the few remaining laws that still do so should be repealed. Civil remedies are sufficient to address any harm caused by speech. Criminalisation is not the way to go.’

Two of Manchester United stars, Bryan Mbeumo and Amad Diallo became the centre of attention after dancing to Moliy’s ‘Shake it to the Max’ following their 4-2 win against Brighton at Old Trafford.

After Mbeumo scored the goal, Amad Diallo joined the celebration by dancing to the ‘Shake it to the Max’ challenge, highlighting the track’s worldwide influence.

Moliy’s ‘Shake it to the Max’ challenge has gained significant attention globally, with various personalities and creatives joining the trend.

It will be recalled renowned fashion model Claudia K created a challenge for Shenseea’s verse in the song.

Internet sensations, Davy and Mélo created a challenge for the hook of ‘Shake it to the Max’.

Ghanaian musician Archipalago also created his own version of the song, but received mixed reviews. Others include Shenseea and Skillibeng, Cardi B and Tyla among other international stars, who have vibed to the track. Samini, Stonebwoy, and Edem have also created their own refixes of the hit song.

The song has garnered significant accolades, including multiple gold certifications in various countries, including Gold in France for selling 100,000 units, in New Zealand for selling 15,000 units, in Greece for streaming equivalent to 1,000,000 streams.

Also, it has received gold certification in the United Kingdom for selling 400,000 units and in the US for selling over 500,000 units.

In terms of chart performances, it reached number one on the Billboard U.S. Afrobeats Songs Chart, peaked at number one on the UK’s Official Afrobeats Chart for seven consecutive weeks among others.

AFTER REALIZING how China has preserved its green forests and beautiful rivers, Ashanti Regional Minister, Dr. Frank Amoakohene, has virtually admitted that, all this while, he has not been doing enough to fight the illegal mining menace ‘galamsey’, which is destroying the environment in his region.

According to him, his recent visit to Zhengzhou in China, has been an eye-opener to him that his efforts in the fight against ‘galamsey’ and protect the rivers and forests in his region, are woefully inadequate.

Being very candid, Dr. Amoakohene stated emphatically that he has personally seen beautiful and stunning-looking river bodies and rich green forests in China, which unfortunately is not what persist in the Ashanti Region, where he is the minister.

He said his region also boasts of green forests and beautiful rivers just like China but because the region has abundance of gold, some illegal miners, including some Chinese nationals, have taken advantage by destroying the rich forests and river bodies in search of the precious mineral.

The Ashanti Regional Minister, who is obviously impressed about what he has witnessed in China, has therefore pledged to go all out by working to jealously protect the river bodies and forests in his region for them to also look sublime like what is in China.

Speaking about lessons learnt from his visit to Zhengzhou, he stated, ‘Importantly for me, when I came, I saw how beautiful your rivers are and how green your forest is, and I want the same for my country.

‘I have beautiful rivers and beautiful forest, however, we have gold in abundance, for which reason people come in and engage in illegal mining and destroy our forest and rivers.

‘I visited one of your forest, which is very historic just beside the Shalom Temple, very green, mountainous and beautiful. I want that for my country too. So it’s one thing that I have also learnt during this visit to Zhengzhou City,’ he said.

According to the Minister, the public would soon see a new energy and strength in fighting illegal mining from him, stressing that his short visit to China has been of great help to him, especially in the area of protecting the environment.

He said some expatriates are doing legal mining in the Ashanti Region, without posing threat to the environment but unfortunately some Chinese nationals collaborate with some locals to indulge in illegal mining, which poses a threat to the environment.

‘Australia, they are there through Newmont. They have less environmental issues. South Africa they are also there through Anglogold, they also have less environmental issues.

‘Unfortunately, in some cases, we arrest some of the Chinese nationals who collaborate with locals to do it illegally and spoil our water and spoil our forest,’ he lamented, adding that he is ready to fight illegal mining headon.