Managing Editor of the Insight newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jnr has described as insolent, the stance of Education Minister Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh after the latter debunked reports of the inclusion of the CSE in the curriculum of schools in the country.
Dr. Opoku Prempeh in a media encounter in Kumasi denied comments he had made about the Comprehensive Sexuality Education earlier in the year. In a trending video captured by GhanaWeb TV, he said: “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).”
But speaking on Tuesday, October 1 to address various concerns by the public news that CSE was being added to the curriculum, the Education Minister denied the above statement.
“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,” he explained.
The Managing Editor obviously not enthused by the actions of the Education Minister indicated that “…it would have been different if the minister had called the press conference yesterday and said that look this thing was presented to us, we may have overlooked some things before, but in the light of public anger, agitation… we have decided to withdraw it. It would have been honourable. You could disagree with the fact that it was done, look for motives and so on but in the end, it will be honourable. But to come and say that those who are criticizing the document are liars and that you’ve never approved such a document, it’s a figment of their imagination… I think it’s extremely insulting to those who raised issues with it...”
Kwesi Pratt who was a panel on Good Morning Ghana Thursday chided NAPO for disrespecting the ‘rational, prominent people’ who raised issues with the brouhaha.
The government has come under heavy criticism from the public over claims that there are plans in place to implement a secret Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) agenda through the introduction of Comprehensive Sexuality Education.
The supposed document for the teaching of CSE, according to a number of stakeholders including religious heads and anti-LGBT movement, has topics go contrary to the cultural and morality of the Ghanaian society.
But members of the Government have discredited such reports.