“If you are involved in the gay and lesbian lifestyle, it’s bondage. It is personal bondage, personal despair and personal enslavement”, Michele Bachmann.
Sexuality is how people experience and express themselves as sexual beings. It can be explained in three parts:
Orientation – who we are attracted to; Behaviour – what we do sexually; Identity – how we see and present ourselves to others.
“Human sexuality is the way people experience and express themselves sexually. This involves biological, erotic, physical, emotional, social, or spiritual feelings and behaviors. Because it is a broad term, which has varied over time, it lacks a precise definition. The biological and physical aspects of sexuality largely concern the human, including the human sexual response cycle. Someone’s sexual orientation is their pattern of sexual interest in the opposite or same sex. Physical and emotional aspects of sexuality include bonds between individuals that are expressed through profound feelings or physical manifestations of love, trust, and care. Social aspects deal with the effects of human society on one’s sexuality, while spirituality concerns an individual’s spiritual connection with others. Sexuality also affects and is affected by cultural, political, legal, philosophical, moral, ethical, and religious aspects of life”, according to Wikipedea
Change is said to be a good thing, but the sort of change we intend bringing to our educational sector has resulted in lots of voices kicking against the introduction of the “COMPREHENSIVE SEXUALITY EDUCATION (CSE)”.
According to the Education Minister, Matthew Opoku Prempeh, at a press conference, “The curriculum framework from KG to P6 that has been approved by Cabinet from the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment for use in the development of school curriculum and published on NACA website does not include anything on Comprehensive Sexuality Education.”
“The curriculum that has been developed out of the framework for use by the Ghana Education Service in all public schools and approved by cabinet and as published does not include comprehensive sexuality education. NACA has not approved any material on Comprehensive Sexuality Education as it is not included in the published curriculum framework,” the Minister opined.
Varying opinions on the subject have come in thick and fast, with most opinions questioning the morale and rationale behind the acceptance and introduction of such a program into our curriculum with the focus targeting pupils from the lower primary.
“I believe our leaders want to see LGBT before they understand this whole thing is about the subtle introduction of LGBT in our schools. The word sexuality is different from sex. I don’t know why government is defending this? It’s ridiculous”, Ohene Akoto, a father and an entrepreneur, said.
Prominent people in our society, like the National Chief Imam Sheikh Dr. Osmanu Nuhu Sharubutu have added their voice to the numerous calling for rejection of the program.
“We would like to state unequivocally that the Islamic Community does not accept any form of educating minors and pupils on sexuality. In our estimation, such a move is an attempt to hide behind educational reforms to brainwash the pupils with LGBT agenda. Ideally, Islamic jurisprudence recommends that sexual education be introduced to children above the age of 10. This is the time the children are expected to begin to understand the socio-moral consequences of the choice of sex orientation”, Chief Imam said.
“We, therefore, urge the sector Ministry and GES to consider a broad consultation with relevant stakeholders on the implementation of the controversial policy. “We appeal to the Ministry and GES to drop that satanic agenda in the interest of national cohesion and moral promotion,” the Chief Imam said in a statement”, he added.
Some viral videos purporting to have emanated from some schools, have teachers clearly mentioning the private parts of both males and females to these school children, who from all moral and cultural indications, are not supposed to have such knowledge at such a lower age and level.
The government and United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) launched the CSE program in February but the concerns have been raised about the potential for pupils to be given awareness of sexuality and LGBTQ issues at too early a stage.
Groups like the Ghana Catholic Bishops Conference have criticized the lack of consultation from the government in the matter.
The conference said it will reject the program if it is indeed an attempt to introduce children to LGBT issues as suggested.
The National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) President, Angel Carbonu, argued that more engagement from the government was needed to address the concerns.
Whether the parents, the reverend ministers or the teachers are wrong or not, there is the need for the managers of education to do whatever it takes to give us certainty, to give the people surety and also concrete evidence that we don’t want to go the way others have gone.”
Member states of the United Nations are mandated to roll out CSE in accordance with their own cultural norms and values.
The program is being supported by the Governments of Sweden and Ireland.
The National Council for Curriculum Assessment (NaCCA), the body that develops the country’s educational curriculum says it has no knowledge of, neither has it sanctioned any document on Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE).
Executive Secretary of the Council, Dr Prince Armah, insists the new curriculum which is currently being executed in schools across the country from kindergarten to Junior High School (JHS) level has no content relating to CSE.
He said over 152,000 teachers have so far been trained on the new curriculum and if there was any content on CSE, with LGBT tendencies, these teachers would have raised the red flags long ago.
“Government has not endorsed any curriculum material which is alien to our cultural societal and cultural norms and values; it does not endorse any material that tends to promote behavioural tendencies associated with gayism and lesbianism,” he said in an interview.
From all the discussions so far, it is obvious government will shield the introduction of the CSE till the needful is done.
Christian and Islamic clerics, as well as civil society organizations and Ghanaians on social media, expressed outrage about initial reports of the inclusion of CSE into the curricula describing it as “satanic” and a pro-LGBT agenda.
Additionally, he noted that: “Teacher resource packs developed for teachers to enable them to teach the new school curriculum (KG-P6) do not include CSE”.
He subsequently assured the public that “the government and the ministry will not compromise our societal values in the delivery of quality education”.
It is also reported that a province in Canada, has cancelled a similar controversial sex education curriculum that taught children about gender identity, consent and social media.
In this part of our world, topics on sex is a sacred subject hence, the topic is not discussed among the young but the elderly.
We wait with bated breath as to where and how this knotty subject is untied.
source: Nsemgh.com