The introduction of Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) into the new curriculum to be implemented by the Ghana Education Service (GES) in basic schools has generated public uproar.
Civil society groups, as well as some religious groups which felt introducing young people to sex education as early as age 4 was not right, have described it as a ‘’satanic’’ attempt to promote Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT).
Per the guidelines for CSE, pupils in all public schools including 4-year-olds will be given Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) while some officials say the subject content will be age-appropriate so toddlers will be empowered with values that will protect them from sexual harassment.
The Minister for Education, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, at a press conference held on Wednesday, January 30, 2019, stated categorically that the subject of sexuality education has become a very important matter particularly for the youth in our Ghanaian societies.
He said the changing societal context characterized by the free flow of information and media pluralism including social media have necessitated the need for education systems to provide accurate information on sexuality education.
“We in Ghana see it as imperative that sexuality education should be part of the curricula that we will launch in September this year from Kindergarten (KG) to Senior High School (SHS),” Mr Opoku Prempeh told the press in Accra.
He then congratulated UNESCO and partners for the timely nature of the dialogue among Ministers of Education in Africa from Eastern, Southern, Central and Western Africa, which was aimed at shaping the discourse on the implementation of CSE in Africa.
“Ghana has long recognised sexual and reproductive health education as a conduit to address issues affecting the youth in this direction. Originally provided by elders and other traditional leaders in the community...aspects of reproductive health education were introduced into the school system with the advent of formal education,” he noted.
At the recent press conference held on Tuesday, October 1, 2019, the minister, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, denied that the new curriculum includes the CSE.
According to him, the new curriculum approved for KG to Primary 6 does not include CSE.
“As of this morning, the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA) has not approved any material on CSE as it is not included in the published curriculum and curriculum framework. One hundred and fifty-two thousand (152,000) teachers have been trained for the new curriculum which started in September and no teacher was trained on CSE,” Mr Opoku Prempeh said.
He indicated that teacher resource packs have been printed and distributed to all teachers trained on how to engage the students or pupils on the new curricula.
He said during the training, teachers only complained about the food that was served but none complained about anything that involves CSE, and stressed that it is because CSE was not part of the curriculum.
