As civil and religious organisations and a majority of Ghanaians pour out their resentment at the Ministry of Education and government ...
As civil and religious organisations and a majority of Ghanaians pour out their resentment at the Ministry of Education and government for reportedly introducing Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) in the educational curriculum, the sector Minister has explained that the public anger has no basis.
Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh said the curriculum framework for Kindergarten (KG) to Primary Six, and approved by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA) for use in the development of school curriculum, which has been approved by Cabinet and published on www.nacca.gov.gh, did not include CSE.
At a presser yesterday to douse the tension this subject matter had been ballooned to with wild varied interpretations, he added: “NaCCA has not approved any material on CSE as it is not included in the approved and published KG to Primary Six curriculum framework,” albeit some media houses claimed they have in their possession an approved and published book by the NaCCA, and quoted pages which suggested that CSE had been included in the curriculum.
With the reported inclusion of the CSE in the curriculum, religious and civil organisations and majority of parents have lashed that it smacks of an insult and backwardness to the values and norms of Ghana’s religious beliefs, traditions and customs.
Besides, they said, it is an affront to Ghana’s 1992 Constitution.
Acknowledging these, Dr Prempeh said: “There are faith-based organisations on both [the] Ghana Education Service (GES) and NaCCA’s Governing Councils to help ensure that our curriculum is aligned with our values as a nation.
“We appeal to the general public and all faith-based organisations to exercise restraint and verify the facts of official government policy before making public pronouncements. The nation should rest assured that the government and ministry will not compromise our societal values in the delivery of quality education,” the sector Minister concluded.
The Minister’s presser to set the record straight on the CSE subject was greeted with grimaces on the faces of some parents who The Chronicle spoke to in Ashaiman, and, to them, the government, realising the humiliating consequences this would have brought to it, had to quickly come out to suggest that none of its assigns included the CSE in the approved curriculum.
On July 12, 2018, parents in a Canadian province, Ontario, went on a mass protest against CSE, a controversial sex education curriculum that sought to teach children about gender identity, consent, and social media.
The subject was implemented in 2015, however, true to his promise, the newly-elected Ontario Premier, Doug Ford, strongly pushed for the cancellation of the lessons, with many objecting to the curriculum, which, they argued, was age inappropriate and dismissed family values.
For instance, one lesson plan designed for children suggested describing masturbation as “something that many people do and find pleasurable.”
Other lessons plans for children mentioned concepts such as sexual orientation, children having two mothers or two fathers, and the idea that not everyone’s gender corresponds with their sex at birth.
These, the parents in Ontario, found ravaging, and so during their street protest, they displayed placards, some of which read: ‘It’s a parent’s right to teach their children about sex; Respect our parental discretion and do not damage our children.’
source:The Chronicle
