The National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) President, Angel Carbonu, has suggested that some more engagement from the government is needed on the Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) to ensure clarity.
Speaking to Citi News, Mr. Carbonu advised the state not to ignore the backlash and controversy over some aspects of the CSE.
“If the people have any problem with any aspect of education delivery, the only choice you have is to pause and do an engagement with the people.”
“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.”
The Ghana Education Service (GES) had assured that the introduction of the CSE into the basic school curriculum will not undermine Ghanaian cultural norms.
It reminded that member states of the United Nations are mandated to roll out CSE in accordance with their own cultural norms and values.
The government and United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) launched the CSE programme in February, as has been done in some other countries worldwide.
The programme is being supported by the Governments of Sweden and Ireland.
One of the major points of contention has been the prospect of pupils being given awareness of sexuality, LGBTQ issues and gender too early a stage.
Mr. Carbonu opined that the name of the programme may be making people uncomfortable.
He felt that “when you choose that same name to pursue yours, then you don’t blame the people for standing against it.”
“I think that sometimes in the quest of doing new things, we should be cautious not to be ambiguous in our communication so as not to open up the possibility of misunderstanding and misrepresentations.”
Executive Director of the National Population Council, Dr. Leticia Adelaide Appiah touched on a similar point later on during Citi TV’s The Point of View.
Dr. Appiah noted that the content of the CSE was not new to Ghana.
“If you look at what we have been doing since the ‘70s, all of it fits into CSE. We have just not named it as CSE,” she explained.
Given the controversy arising, she surmised that “if the name is keeping people from even looking at the content, then probably we should relook it.”