The Chief Director at the Ministry of Education (MoE), Mr. Divine Yao Ayidzoe, has disclosed that the Ministry will no longer send Ghanaian medical students to Cuba.

According to him, the students were unable to communicate and understand the Spanish language, posing a huge difficulty to their medical studies in Cuba.

"When I went to Cuba, my students there were struggling to learn the Spanish. So we (MoE) have resolved that we are sending no more students there. We will rather arrange for the [Cuban] professors to come and teach the medicine in English in Ghana," he noted.

Mr. Ayidzoe made the disclosure at a public lecture organised by the Confucius Institute at the University of Cape Coast.

It was on the topic: "The Impact of Globalization on Education and the Importance of Acquiring Chinese as a Second Language."

The Chief Director announced that teachers in private schools would have to acquire a license in order to be qualified to practice.

Mr. Divine Yao Ayidzoe (2nd right) in a photo with Chinese Director of UCC Confucius Institute, Prof. OU Yamei (2nd left) and Ghana Director of UCC Confucius Institute, Prof. Ishmael Mensah (left

Mr. Divine Yao Ayidzoe (2nd right) in a photo with Chinese Director of UCC Confucius Institute, Prof. OU Yamei (2nd left) and Ghana Director of UCC Confucius Institute, Prof. Ishmael Mensah (left)

"Next year (2023), we will have to license teachers in our private schools. In other words, if you are not licensed, you cannot be a teacher in a private school," he said.

He pointed out some of the educational reforms ongoing at the Ministry of Education and added that there was a need for a transformation of the current education system to enable the country to compete with others in the world.

He noted that the reforms would prepare and equip students with the necessary job skills to be successful in the world of work.

For her part, the Chinese Director of the Confucius Institute at UCC, Prof. OU Yamei, encouraged Ghanaian students to study Chinese to enhance their opportunities of gaining employment with the various Chinese companies in Ghana.

In a remark, the Ghana Director of the Confucius Institute at UCC, Prof. Ishmael Mensah, equally entreated students to position themselves to take advantage of the study of the Chinese language to secure a place in globalization.

Source: Documentation and Information Section-UCC