A former Director of the Ghana Education Service, (GES), Charles Aheto Tsegah, believes that the Comprehensive Sexuality Education, (CSE), is very necessary for Ghanaian children in this modern age.
Speaking on CNR weekly program “The Big Issue” he challenged the argument that CSE would cause the kids to engage in sexual activities.
He said, rather, they would use the information to make the right decisions in their lives.
“In the past, we have not been explicit in terms of content. Children need this information, they need the information to make the right decisions and that is where the confusion starts from because we say when we give them the information they become too open-minded and open-mindedness will lead to something else. Children will have to be open-minded enough under this current dispensation to be able to function in the new global environment and that is important for us today”.
He made the remark in response to calls by the Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council (GPCC) on government to remove the CSE from the new syllabus or risk being voted out in the 2020 general elections.
Mr. Aheto Tsegah argued that CSE is not a departure from the country’s norms and culture.
“For me, all of this is about education, and we have been doing this since Kwame Nkrumah and in our syllabus, we have taught our children since age 4 about their body and so essentially there is no departure from what CSE stands for. And because this is a growing society it means we are still growing in our understanding of knowledge that must be known in the course of time. We are still stuck in our old mood where we believe the world is only what we know.”
In a global view, Aheto Tsegah explained that, things have to be comprehensive else “we might end up stunting the way we want to teach our children.”
“I believe education is about information, knowledge and application of knowledge but the third level of the application of knowledge does not even happen in the school, it happens outside the school where you apply your experiences of your school into your life. Christians say for lack of knowledge my people perish and so are we willing to keep it from them until they grow and see that it is nice and then decide to do it?”
The government and United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) launched the Comprehensive Sexuality Education programme in February 2019 but in the past week, concerns have been raised about the potential for pupils to be given awareness of sexuality and LGBTQ issues at too early a stage.
Calls by GPCC to remove the CSE:
Various groups and institutions have called on government to withdraw the program. The Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council threatened to vote out the government if the much-discussed CSE is not entirely withdrawn from the Ghana Education Service curriculum for basic schools.
GPCC, which has already described the CSE as “Comprehensive Satanic Education” and had insisted that to protect the next generation of the country, a total withdrawal of the Policy is necessary.
In an interview with CNR, an Executive Council Member of GPCC, Bishop Noi Mensah said the council could not overlook the subject of the CSE.
“If that continues, the same thumb that put them in the office is the same thumb that will remove them from office,” Bishop Noi Mensah said.
He added that Ghanaians needed to remind the government of their power so it doesn’t make decisions “in their own selfish interest.”
CNR
