The Ghana Education Service(GES) has refuted claims that the service is introducing explicit sexual information to children under the guise of Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE), stating that the curriculum has nothing to do with homosexuality.

The GES said, “The new standard based curriculum being implemented has nothing to do with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) issues, masturbation or explicit display of intimate body parts”.

This was issued in a statement signed by Mrs Cassandra Twum Ampofo, the Head of Public Relations Unit, GES and copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra.

The statement said the CSE seeks to reinforce advocacy for sexual abstinence, adding that the goal of CSE was to equip school children with age and cultural appropriate information to explore and nurture positive values towards their sexual and reproductive health.

“The curriculum is also to develop self-esteem, respect for human rights and gender equality and help students to make informed decisions about their health, with emphasis on Ghanaian cultural values and norms”, it said.

The statement said it is wrong for the public to insist that CSE as practiced in Europe or North America had the same structures and content as it is being rolled out in Ghana, adding that member states of the United Nations are mandated to roll out CSE in accordance with their curriculum norms and values.

It said the GES in collaboration with the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment has not finally approved the CSE guidelines and that no special sessions have been organized by GES to train students as advocates for sexual rights.

“The GES is a state agency and will not under any circumstance implement any programme which goes contrarily to the legal, cultural norms, values and beliefs of the Ghanaian people”.

However, Reverend Dr Frimpong Manso, the President of the Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council, had described the planned CSE guidelines to be introduced in public schools by the GES as “satanic”.

Dr Manso said he would resist the roll-out of the guidelines with all his strength and power, explaining that, taking the children to CSE could lead to the degradation of the country’s moral fibre and religion.

Also, the Catholic Bishops Conference has said it was not consulted on the introduction of the CSE into the basic school curriculum adding that the conference would reject the CSE if it is indeed an attempt to introduce children to LGBT issues.

The Concerned Teachers Association of Ghana said the Association was not aware of the CSE, which is starting in the next academic year.

Ghana and the United Nations education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation launched the CSE curriculum in a bid to empower adolescents and young people to deepen their scope of existing activities.