How California fought against CSE but still got approved

For days now in Ghana, there have been heated debates over the implementation of the Comprehensive Sexuality Education for basic schools.

Civil Society Groups, religious bodies, opposition parties, the Minority in Parliament and ordinary Ghanaians have all raised serious concerns calling for it to be scrapped from our educational system.

While many describe the new curriculum as ‘satanic’, others believe the introduction of the programme is government’s subtle way of indoctrinating the children to LGBT+ values, which prompted government to allay fears saying it has no explicit LGBT+ content.

The Ghana Education Service (GES) was supposed to from next term, include sex education in the curriculum of basic schools to equip schoolchildren to recognise and experience their sexuality.

At age six, Primary One pupils will be introduced to values and societal norms and how to interact with the different sexes and groups. As the pupils graduate to the upper primary, they will be made to study different modules of sexuality that include relationship, friendship, dating and courtship.

The guideline module for 11-year-olds in Primary Six includes fertility, pregnancy-related issues, childbirth and respecting gender differences.

This is part of the Guidelines for the Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) that is expected to integrate gender, human values and sexual and reproductive health rights perspectives into sexuality education in Ghana.

Although government says the new guidelines for sexuality education has not been approved and denied plans to introduce any education that is frowned upon by Ghanaian laws and cultural norms, others think government, in the long run, will approve it since money has already been taken from the Government of Sweden for its implementation.

However, Ghana is not the only country kicking against the implementation of CSE in its educational system.

Countries like Canada, Namibia, South Africa, Nigeria, United Kingdom and the United States of America, among others, battled against its implementation. While some countries like Canada succeeded in cancelling the sexuality education curriculum after massive protests, others like Nigeria and Uganda lost the battle amid uproar from the public.

In the United States, California to be precise, the controversial sexuality education was approved despite protest in May 2019.

California education officials agreed on an extensive new framework for sex education in the classroom, sparking intense debate where concerns were raised that some of the materials were too explicit and seemed to be endorsing specific sexual activity.

What triggered it most was a book titled “S.E.X.: The All-You-Need-to-Know Sexuality Guide to Get You Through Your Teens and Twenties,” which parents claim include explicit details of sexual activity.

But in the end, the California education officials voted to approve CSE saying it is age-appropriate and important for young people to know to stay healthy.

The framework offers numerous subjects for discussion at each grade grouping including:

- Grades kindergarten to three: Gender identity

- Grades four to six: Sexual feelings, including masturbation

- Grades seven to eight: Consent and sexual abuse

- Grades nine to 12: Contraception and healthy sexual relationships, including advice for LGBTQ students.

One of the prominent people who stood against the implementation and criticised the California government for the introduction of CSE was host of ‘The Final Point’ on One America News Network, Liz Wheeler.

According to her, the framework of CSE “is just plain old indoctrination, brainwashing of children to advance your political agenda. Make no mistake, the state of California is sexualising children and blacklisting parents to push the radical leftist gender identity agenda.”

Moreover, about 8,000 signatures were generated from a petition to scrap the curriculum with concerns over children’s ability to handle such material at younger ages but the California State School Board of Education said the provision of this type of information will benefit students in the long run.

No matter the protests from parents and other conservative groups, California still approved CSE.

Will Ghana win the battle against the implementation of CSE? Well, that will be known after the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo addresses Ghanaians on the issue today.

Watch Liz Wheeler’s submission below;