The Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide, Abdul Malik Kweku Baako, has warned the Education Ministry as well as the Ghana Education Service (GES) not to lose guard and implement the Comprehensive Sexuality Education policy into the new curriculum, else they will be trapped into promoting Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT).
According to him, the CSE is a global campaign for every sovereign nation to domesticate its implementation.
Referring to paragraph five of a GES press statement, Mr Baako indicated that on April 29, 2019, the GES wrote to NaCCA to request the insertion of the phrase within the acceptable cultural values and norms of the Ghanaian society in the third objective of page three of the CSE guidelines in circulation.
“The four countries have signed on to several international agreements that mention CSE such as the convention on the rights of the child 1990, the Cairo Plan of Action 1994, the Beijing Platform of Action 1995, and the UNGASS Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS 2001…in addition, Ghana signed the Commitment Drafted at the Abuja Regional Conference on HIV/AIDS 2001 and the Maputo Protocol into the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa 2003…Ghana’s most recent regional commitment on adolescent sexual and reproductive health and rights also emphasise the need for CSE in paragraph 25…” he said on Peace FM's Kokrokoo Wednesday morning.
Mr Baako noted that the concept is holistic and comprehensive but it is incumbent on the country implementing the CSE to be guarded consistently and make sure that whatever the country domesticates do not include LGBT.
He stressed that the issue of the CSE as a global issue has been moving from different stages...even in Ghana, over the past decade at different levels, Comprehensive Sexuality Education is being implemented in our educational curricula minus LGBT.
Controversial CSE
The Ghana government and United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) launched the CSE programme this year in a bid to empower adolescents and young people to attain Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE).
Known as the “Our right, Our lives, Our Future (O³), CSE is supported by the governments of Sweden and Ireland.
It is being implemented in Ghana, Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe for what proponents say will be an effective delivery of quality comprehensive sexuality programmes.
The Ghana Education Service (GES) has argued that the subject content of the CSE would be age-appropriate to enable pre-schoolers to be empowered with values that would protect them from sexual harassment.
