The Charismatic Bishops Conference has kicked against Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE).
According to the conference, the values, morals and norms of the curriculum “are an affront to our values as Christians and Ghanaians” and must be withdrawn immediately.
The conference said this in a statement on the ensuing conversation about the government’s introduction of Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) into the basic education curriculum.
The planned integration of the Comprehensive Sexuality Education in the basic school curriculum has generated mixed reactions from the public with some suggesting that the course is a backdoor attempt to introduce children to LGBT issues.
Others have suggested that the material be limited to pupils in Junior High Schools.
Despite clarification from bodies such as the Ghana Education Service that the curriculum has nothing to do with “LGBT issues, masturbation or explicit display/labeling of intimate body parts” and insisted that the education is meant to inculcate relevant values into pupils, the Charismatic Bishops Conference said the curriculum is a poor response to the challenges of young people in the country and “will only result in some of the most sorry situations for the youth of this country.”
Read below excepts of the conference’s statement:
As we demand for the withdrawal of the Comprehensive Sexual Education from Ghanaian schools, we put forward the following:
1. The Comprehensive Sexual Education curriculum does not show any respect to the cultural settings, beliefs and practices of the country. Overwhelmingly all of Ghana’s indigenous norms frown on these teachings on sex, abortions, different ideas of what a man is, and what a woman is. We do not agree that our Christian values and traditions should be ignored for this curriculum to be rolled out. Around the world, family-oriented organisations and educationists have raised alarm about the dangers that these teachings pose to our traditional family values.
2. The Comprehensive Sexual Education curriculum introduces concepts of sexuality, ‘maleness’, ‘femaleness’, and relationships which Ghanaian parents find bad training for children as young as 4 years. Training them according to this curriculum does not emphasize the values and behaviors that Christians and Ghanaians approve of. We therefore totally and absolutely reject this curriculum and are completely opposed to any government or institution that seeks to promote such concepts.
3. We have in the past called on the Government to roll-out a new O & A Level Curriculum to replace this deficient Basic Education Certificate Examinations and West Africa Senior Secondary Certificate Examinations. Amazingly, this call by the Charismatic Bishops’ Conference has not been heeded at all. We find it profoundly disappointing that the same government which will not heed to calls to improve the curriculum and upgrade the educational system to the O & A Levels, will rather devote resources to roll out the abhorrent Comprehensive Sexual Education curriculum.
4. We are aware that Western governments, in the name of human rights, are seeking to spread the homosexual lifestyle and culture around the world. The Ghana Charismatic Bishops’ Conference can see through these subtle attempts to superimpose on Ghana the spirit that destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. The Ghana Charismatic Bishops Conference, using whatever means it has at its disposal, will firmly and openly oppose any government or institution that seeks to introduce and propagate the homosexual lifestyle and culture in our nation.
