Rev. Prof Asante recommends ‘home-grown’ CSE

The Chairman of the National Peace Council, Most. Rev. Professor Emmanuel Asante, has recommended a sexuality education that will be grounded on the values and norms of the Ghanaian culture, the kind he calls “home-grown sexuality education”.

While he acknowledges that sexuality education is a necessity for the socialisation of mankind, especially in the digital age where information abounds, he said that kind of education must not be an imported one.

He was reacting to the introduction of Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) into the curriculum of basic schools by the Ghana Education Service, a policy that has been met with public opposition.

“Can’t we come up with our sexuality education grounded in our culture? It is possible that we could do that and once we have been able to do that, I tell you what a lot of our fellow brothers and sisters in Africa will go for it. We can market it in some other countries,” he told host Winston Amoah on 3FM‘s Sunrise.

Whereas those in support of the CSE argue that children need to have a holistic appreciation of their sexuality and their sexual rights, those opposing the policy contend the move has the tendency of introducing children to other sexuality orientations alien to the Ghanaian culture.

Speaking on Wednesday, October 2, the immediate past Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church of Ghana noted that it is not exactly out of place for Ghana to have sexuality education in the school curriculum but advised that the content of that education must be in consonance with Ghanaian culture.

“[We should have a curriculum] based on our Ghanaian culture, conscious of what is happening in the world because if you will keep mute and simply yell against it, you know the internet is in your room, the CSE is already on the phone that your child is holding, it is already there in the internet, we should counter that when we come up with our own, that will help these young ones to appreciate our culture,” he explained.

He observed that sexuality education has always been a part of the Ghanaian society, except that it was not openly been spoken about.