By Ernest Nutsugah
Accra, March 14, GNA – Professor Kwaku Boakye, Vice Chancellor of Cape Coast Technical University, has called for creative arts to be made compulsory in Ghana’s education curricula to help preserve cultural values.
He said culture and creative arts should not be treated as optional subjects in schools.
Prof Boakye said this when he addressed the 2026 Ghana Culture Week Celebration in Accra on the theme: “Resetting Ghana’s Tourism, Culture and Creative Ecosystem.”
He commended the growing cultural awareness in the country but expressed concern about what he described as fast eroding values and norms, including respect for the elderly.
Prof Boakye attributed the trend to lack of recognition for existing cultural practices, weak parental supervision, and increasing appetite for foreign content.
“It is heartbreaking to see children speak to adults in a disrespectful manner and instead of them being scolded, their parents who were raised well in the past cheer them on in the name of ‘let’s allow them to express themselves’….
“In the name of modernity, and at the risk of being accused of child abuse, our children are being denied the opportunity of working hard to build self-confidence, resilience, and tenacity… we blindly copy foreign practices but forget that the so-called soft life comes at a cost,” he stated.
Prof Boakye said intangible cultural heritage should receive attention alongside tangible cultural elements such as food, music, fashion and festivals.
“We need to integrate the creative arts meaningfully into education curricula as core disciplines. Cultural literacy should be part of our consciousness, our language, customs, norms and values should be taught first informally in homes, and formally made examinable in schools,” he stated.
The Culture Week celebration, which featured culinary and visual art exhibitions, film screening and stakeholder dialogue, was organised by the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts in collaboration with the Ghana Tourism Authority and the Ghana Culture Forum.
Prof Boakye said the creative arts sector required adequate financing through public-private partnerships, venture capital and a cultural framework that aligned culture with tourism, education, trade and digital innovation.
He noted that cultural tourism could generate employment, foreign exchange, preserve heritage sites, and stimulate local craft markets.
“If we are to reset the cultural ecosystem, we must first reset our minds…Culture transcends symbolism and patronage. The first step to a cultural reset is to address the identity crisis we face. Culture should be seen as a platform for our very existence and economic prosperity,” he said.
Prof Boakye urged the digitisation of Ghana’s oral histories and called for greater youth participation in cultural activities to ensure the intergenerational transmission of cultural values.
“The future of Ghana’s creative economy lies at the intersection of tradition and technology…as our culture stands at the crossroads, it becomes imperative for us to take a hard look at the present structure and how we can bequeath a solid legacy for the next generation, which amplifies our values, accentuate our cultural expressions and package our arts in an economically viable way,” he stated.
GNA
Edited by Kenneth Sackey