Some heads of basic schools in Accra have urged Ghanaians not to be distressed over the sex education their wards are receiving in schools because they do not include lessons, which support the agenda of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Gender (LGBT) advocates.
In an interview with the Ghana News Agency, the headteachers said the new public school curricular had no content on LGBT, which is seen as alien to the Ghanaian culture and also criminal.
The teachers had neither been trained to promote LGBT nor received directives from any individual or groups in pursuance of that agenda, they said.
The GNA’s interviews follow the controversy that has ensued over fears that the Ghana Education Service intended to implement a Comprehensive Sexuality Education, which includes educating children on their rights to choose their sexual preferences.
Some religious leaders and activists have taken to both social and mainstream media to express their concerns and disapproval over any attempt to adopt content of the CSE, being championed in some Western countries.
Officials of the United Nations Population Fund in Ghana have said the body had supported the GES to develop guidelines on CSE for kindergarten to Junior High School teachers to aid their efficiency.
They, however, insist that there was no plan to corrupt the morality of the students.
The head of the Independent Avenue Basic 1 School, told the GNA that sex education was already a part of the curricula and the content had not been altered.
In December last year, she said, a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) offered some of the teachers some training to make them more effective in educating the children on their sexuality and reproductive health in line with Ghanaian values.
“Professional teachers must be skillful in how to educate children within the various age brackets on their sexuality to protect them from abuses,” she said.
"The way I will teach a JHS student will not be the same way I will teach the Kindergarten; the approach will be different so will the words for communication.
“We cover topics, such as adolescence, general grooming and reproduction”.
The head of the Bishop Girls’ School also explained that she had never heard LGBT being considered as topics in any of their workshops and was, therefore, surprised to hear the fiery narratives on those issues over radio.
Her school, she said, was still keeping to the approved curricula.
Some heads, however, declined to be interviewed, with one of them remarking that the media was being too sensational with the issues.
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