Ghana bets on AI and coding in bid to modernise national curriculum
Accra, Ghana – Ghana has introduced artificial intelligence, coding and computer programming into its national curriculum, for pupils from kindergarten to junior high school, becoming one of the few African countries to embed these subjects in basic education.
Issued on: 04/08/2026 - RFI
By:Michael Sarpong Mfum in Ghana
The reform, announced by Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu, is part of a broader overhaul of the Ghana's education system, aimed at equipping children with digital skills from an early age while strengthening science, technology, engineering and mathematics education.
The revised curriculum will also include electronics and technical and vocational education and training (TVET), as well as ethics and civic education, reflecting the government's ambition to prepare young Ghanaians for a technology-driven economy.
'Smart start' for pupils
Speaking at the launch of the initiative, Iddrisu said the curriculum had been redesigned to create what he described as a "Smart Start curriculum".
"The revision of our curriculum is to ensure a Smart Start curriculum for greater integration of technology, science, engineering and mathematics. We have promised to introduce coding, electronics, artificial intelligence and TVET into the basic education curriculum. This will be the new addition," he said.
The minister said the reforms were intended to prepare pupils for a future increasingly shaped by digital technology.
"One of the most significant decisions we took as a government was to revise our education curriculum, from kindergarten to junior high school, to better prepare pupils for a technology-driven world."
He added that Africa should not be left behind as artificial intelligence transforms education and the global economy.
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"The goal is to prepare learners for a future driven by e-learning and emerging technologies. Africa must not be left behind in the digital revolution."
Alongside digital skills, the revised curriculum will place greater emphasis on ethics, patriotism and civic responsibility.
"More importantly, ethics and ethical values, how the child grows up, knowing what the state's resources are, knowing how to be patriotic and responsible, and knowing how to be civically responsible, will be an integral part of our revised curriculum."
Pupils welcome change
Nhyiraba Asiedua Asiedu Otchere, a pupil at Orange Star Roman Catholic Basic School Complex in Mampong-Akuapem, told RFI that introducing AI into classrooms would help pupils better understand lessons and improve independent learning.
"Artificial intelligence is already part of our daily lives. AI and coding can improve pupils' academic performance. If some learners do not fully understand what they are taught in class, AI tools can help them revise and learn more quickly," she said, adding that AI could simplify complex concepts, making them easier for pupils to understand.
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"I am very excited that the government is introducing artificial intelligence and coding into our school curriculum. It will help us learn new technology, improve our problem-solving skills, and prepare us for future jobs in a digital world," said Isaac Siaw, a pupil at Susec Model School in Sunyani, in the Bono Region.
Investment alongside reform
Education experts have also welcomed the reform but cautioned that its success will depend on adequate investment.
Peter Anti, executive director of the Institute for Education Studies, described the initiative as timely and in line with global education trends.
"The introduction of AI into Ghana's basic school curriculum is a timely and commendable initiative. It aligns Ghana with global education trends and will help equip learners with the digital competencies, critical thinking and problem-solving skills needed to remain globally competitive in an AI-driven world," he said.
However, he warned that curriculum reform alone would not guarantee success. Significant investment in electricity, internet connectivity, digital devices and teacher training would be essential to ensure pupils across the country benefited equally, he said.
"Without these investments, schools in rural and underserved communities could fall further behind their better-resourced urban counterparts, potentially widening educational inequalities rather than narrowing them," he cautioned.
AI for homework: The more children’s peers use AI, the more parents would be willing to pay for a subscription
University of Cologne
Many parents have mixed feelings about the unrestricted use of artificial intelligence (AI) for schoolwork. They are concerned about the potential impact on their child’s ability to learn but also don’t want them to be left behind if other young people are using AI. A new study involving the ECONtribute Cluster of Excellence shows just how much this social pressure is influencing demand. The study entitled “Social Dynamics of AI Adoption in Parents’ Educational Decisions” has been published in the academic journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
For the study, Professor Christopher Roth from the Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences at the University of Cologne worked alongside Professors Leonardo Bursztyn and Alex Imas, doctoral candidate Aaron Leonard (University of Chicago) and Assistant Professor Rafael Jiménez-Durán (Bocconi University) to conduct several experiments involving around 2,000 parents from the US, Canada, and the UK. They all had at least one child between the ages of 13 and 18. Parents indicated the maximum amount they would be willing to pay for a three-month premium subscription to an unrestricted AI tool that their child could use for schoolwork.
They were presented with four scenarios in which 20, 40, 60 or 80 per cent of other young people were already using AI to help them with their homework. For every ten-percentage-point increase in the assumed usage, the average willingness to pay rose by 1.83 US dollars. Between the 20 per cent and 80 per cent scenarios, parents’ willingness to pay for the AI subscription rose by more than 60 per cent; this equates to around eleven US dollars. Around 20 per cent of parents cited concerns that their children might otherwise fall behind as the reason for their decision.
In addition to information about the short-term benefits of AI, some of the parents were also given information about the long-term risks. They referred to another field study in which pupils were given access to GPT-4 whilst completing a number of maths exercises. In subsequent maths tests without AI, they obtained scores that were just under 20 per cent lower than those of pupils who had practised without using it.
Although this information did change parents’ attitudes towards the technology, it had virtually no effect on their willingness to pay. Instead, support for school-wide rules or bans rose from 44 per cent to 57 per cent.
“Our study suggests that social pressure can accelerate the spread of new technologies even before their long-term consequences are fully understood,” explains Roth. “Whilst risk information influences parents’ assessments, it does not affect their individual willingness to pay to provide their children with better AI models.”
ECONtribute: Markets & Public Policy
The Cluster of Excellence ECONtribute: Markets & Public Policy at the Universities of Bonn and Cologne addresses pressing societal and technological challenges such as global financial crises, rising inequality, political polarization, digitalization and climate change. Researchers from economics and related disciplines work on innovative approaches to analyse markets and public policy and develop responses to such challenges.
Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Method of Research
Observational study
Subject of Research
People
Article Title
Social dynamics of AI adoption in parents’ educational decisions
Denmark tightens rules on secondary school students to prevent AI cheating
The new Danish measures include oral defences for written take-home exams, and monitoring tools for screen-use during in-school written tests.
In Denmark, secondary school students are going back to school next week under stricter rules on their use of artificial intelligence (AI).
On Thursday, Danish Education Minister Magnus Heunicke announced a set of immediate measures to tackle cheating with AI, including measures such as oral defences of written exam assignments and tools to monitor pupils’ screens during school tests.
In a press release, Heunicke said that Danish upper secondary schools are facing increased problems with AI-assisted cheating, and therefore require prompt action.
The first measure introduces oral exams for all written tests completed at home. The oral defence also applies to the SSO, a major written exam undertaken every year by about 9,000 upper secondary school students.
In addition, upper secondary schools will also have to use monitoring tools to check screens during written exams. Schools will also be required to use a firewall filtering online content during teaching hours and exams.
And as a third and final measure, upper secondary schools are encouraged to invite students to do assignments at school under controlled conditions. This, according to the ministry, will make it easier to monitor students’ processes, provide feedback and create a basis for an accurate assessment.
“I will engage in dialogue with schools, teachers and students about what can be done in the short and slightly longer term, so that we can ensure that AI does not undermine students’ skills, academic abilities and, above all, their ability to think for themselves,” Heunicke said.
These measures come from a country that has lately been trying to understand how to combine the inevitable use of AI by new generations with their education.
Last year, for example, the country launched an experiment, allowing students to use AI during English oral tests in upper secondary schools.
The country is also working on a broader national strategy to regulate AI across the entire education sector.
This relationship between AI and education is also concerning for other European countries. Earlier this summer, Norway imposed a near-ban on the use of generative AI by elementary school pupils and also restricted their use in the education of older children.
And the debate continues outside the political institutions.
According to a study conducted by Eurobarometer, more than half of the European respondents, at around 54%, recognise that AI brings both benefits and challenges for teaching and learning and call for further exploration and assessment of those. While only 22% believe AI does not belong in the classroom**.**
From playing games to building rockets: Portugal's Ubbu brings coding to primary schoolC
Euronews
Just a day before the summer holidays, excitement fills the air at Lisbon's PaRK International School.
Yet one last lesson has the pupil’s full attention in a primary school class . Tablets in hand, they navigate colourful games, solve puzzles or explore the International Space Station. They are learning coding through Ubbu, a Portuguese computer programming platform for children aged six to fourteen.
"It looks like they're playing games, but they're actually working on lots of different things," says teacher Teresa Cary. "They need to understand how to use a computer, how to make a robot do something. They need logic, it's actually maths."
Ubbu was developed by Code for All, a startup founded in 2015 by João Magalhães and a group of friends.
"We believed no one was prepared for the speed at which technology was entering our lives," he says. "We built a solution for any teacher, school or government that wanted to introduce digital literacy, computational thinking, creativity, and now AI and cybersecurity."
Available in four languages, ubbu now reaches around half a million children through more than 8,000 teachers in 20 countries.
Children learn by assembling visual coding blocks rather than writing code. "All the narratives are linked to the UN Sustainable Development Goals," explains pedagogical content creator André Ribeiro. "They create ethical content and learn to use technology for good."
Project manager Joana Miranda demonstrates a pupil's project in which robots work together to stop a forest fire. "Knowing how to use technology safely, responsibly and ethically is incredibly important," she says. Ubbu also aims to bridge the gender gap in technology. We're achieving a 50-50 audience in schools. Girls see role models and realise there are women in science, technology and engineering."
Making those skills accessible to every child is central to the company's mission. Through partnerships with companies and foundations, Ubbu is offered free to public schools in disadvantaged areas of Portugal.
At Amadora Oeste Agrupamento de Escolas’ primary school, on Lisbon's outskirts, teacher Isabel Cunha says the platform has transformed her classroom. "It captured my pupils' attention, and from there we explored many different topics," she says. "After only a year, they know how to use computers and tablets safely, how to navigate the web, I can already see great progress."
For nine-year-old Arwa, whom we follow home after school, coding is simply fun. For her father, the stakes are higher. "In 10 or 20 years, you won't be able to do anything without coding, programming or robotics," he says. "The people who know these things will be the future leaders."
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