Thinking with AI, not giving up thinking: a Ghanaian school's warning points to critical literacy, not prohibition

By Modern Ghana · November 10, 2026.

Pastor Joshua Dzidzornu, board chairman of Eli International School (Tsito-Awudome, Ho West District, Volta Region, Ghana), on Saturday called for strict guidance on children's use of artificial intelligence. He spoke, according to Modern Ghana, during the school's 30th anniversary celebration.

His main warning is that unchecked use could weaken the ability to reason independently. According to the outlet, he notes that students used to solve problems with their own intellect, whereas now many turn to the computer for almost any subject.

Dzidzornu asked the authorities to include technology experts when drawing up the guidelines. He also raised two further risks: that a lack of oversight could concentrate enormous power in a single person, something he called "suicidal" for humanity, and that private conversations, even those in the bedroom, could end up accessible to third parties. He did not provide specific data on these risks, at least according to the report.

On the practical side, he called for schools to teach responsible use. Teachers must first understand how AI works and the principles that govern it before bringing it into the classroom. Students, he added, should not simply accept what it produces, but analyze it and decide for themselves whether to accept or reject it. For him, AI should enhance education, not replace the human capacity to think.

**Our take.** This is a local intervention, general in tone, with no figures or studies. But the underlying concern is legitimate and worth separating from the dramatic tone of some of its phrasing. The best-founded risk is not that AI will "control" anyone tomorrow, but something more ordinary: that children offload cognitive effort before they have developed it. If a student always gets the answer ready-made, they get less practice in the reasoning they are supposed to be learning.

The most valuable part of the speech is the prescription: train teachers first and teach critical evaluation. That is more realistic than banning. In general, blanket classroom bans tend to erode because students already carry these tools in their pockets. What does scale is AI literacy that teaches people to cross-check, be skeptical and verify. There is an important nuance: assistants make mistakes with confidence, so asking "how do I know this is true?" becomes a basic skill, not an extra.

Who wins and who loses also matters. Schools with trained teachers and access to experts will make use of AI as an augmented tutor; those lacking both risk getting only the dependency. That the call comes from a town in Ghana's Volta Region is a reminder that the teacher-training gap will be as decisive as the gap in access to technology.

In the short term, the educational transition will be uncomfortable: there will be generations learning with tools their teachers have not yet mastered. In the long term, the promise still stands: patient, personalized tutoring for any child, wherever they are born, could be one of the greatest levers for equality we have ever had. But it is only fulfilled if the goal is the one Dzidzornu points to, albeit in other words: that the machine expands the student's thinking rather than replacing it.