THE Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council (GPCC) is demanding that government immediately withdraws the controversial Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) from Ghana’s educational lexicon.
The Council suspects the CSE to be a “long term subtle agenda to target our young population with a liberal mindset to accepting and tolerating LGBTQ as a normal societal behaviour in the very near future.”
According to the Council, despite denial by government that the CSE had not been approved for use in schools, available evidence suggest that the government intended to implement the study of the subject next year and could do so in future.
Government, through the Education Ministry, after public repulsion to the introduction of CSE, clarified that the approved curriculum framework for basic schools does not include the CSE.
At a media conference in Accra on Tuesday, Education Minister, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, stated that “no teacher was trained on Comprehensive Sexuality Education.”
“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…….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 insisted.
But the GPCC at a press conference in Accra on Thursday, described the CSE as “Comprehensive Satanic Engagement” and said it was not convinced by government’s position because “evidence abound of existing government commitments to some international obligation on CSE, some of which have been captured in the 2019 budget statement.”
Addressed by its president, Rev. Prof. Paul Frimpong Manso, the GPCC stressed that “anything short of an assurance of complete withdrawal of the policy and a promise never to introduce it in the future will not be accepted.”
As the moral conscience of the country, Rev. Prof. Manso said the church would not shirk its primary moral upbringing responsibility to Ghanaian children by allowing government and other external interest groups to dilute the country’s long tested values on sexuality and allow the introduction of “demonic” policies through CSE.
To ensure that the CSE was not ‘smuggled” into the curriculum, Rev. Prof. Manso called on stakeholders like teacher unions and parents to “remain vigilant and expose any attempt to pass this obnoxious policy through the backdoor.”
In the spirit of accountable and participatory governance, Rev. Prof. Manso called on Parliament to trigger the relevant parliamentary processes to review aspects of the 2019 budget statement that committed state resources to the funding of CSE.
“We call on government to immediately convene a genuine and transparent stakeholder dialogue at all levels that would facilitate the drawing up of our own home-grown solution to the problems of sexuality within the context of our tried and tested religious and cultural moral values,” he stated.
Committing the GPCC to supporting government in whatever means possible to realising the home-grown solutions, Rev. Prof. Manso cautioned against the politicisation of the issue.
JULIUS YAO PETETSI AND KIMBERLY FREMPONG
Photo: Opare Lartey
