The largest opposition party National Democratic Congress (NDC) has taken President Akufo-Addo to task for his recent denial of moves to undertake the Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) in Ghana’s basic schools.
According to the NDC the President’s denial which was made in an address to the clergy and Islamic clerics was “audaciously immoral and blasphemous”.
Speaking at a service to climax the St Cyprian’s Anglican Cathedral Week in Kumasi yesterday, President Akufo-Addo declared: “I am a Christian and this, certainly, is against my Christian values.”The President ought to have at least been guided by how earlier attempts to deny the obvious by his Minister of Education left him badly exposed in a pool of contemptuous ridicule and derision.
“I did not introduce the policy to teach our children CSE.”
“The free SHS is to make our children competitive and not to corrupt them,” he stated.
The NDC in a press statement signed by its General Secretary Johnson Asiedu Nketiah however says the President’s denial is belated and insincere.
“We note that the President elected to speak only after the horses had bolted from the stable door and in the face of an avalanche of condemnation which he could no longer ignore,” the stamen said.
The NDC is convinced the President’s denial contradicts the evidence already in the public domain that points to the fact that government had taken significant strides towards teaching basic school children CSE in Ghana’s schools.
They referred to evidence in the public domain that points to the inclusion of CSE and related topics in the “new Standard Based Curriculum and the Teacher Resource Packs for Basic Schools”, a fact which has been confirmed by teachers and teacher unions.
“Ghanaians are now privy to a raft of official documentation which include the 2019 Budget Statement approved by Parliament last year, invitation letters and reports of workshops that have earlier been convened to train teachers on CSE implementation,” they stated.
The opposition party believes President Akufo-Addo should be telling Ghanaians the steps being taken by his government to withdraw the CSE rather than resort to playing the “ostrich”.
“The NDC expects President Akufo-Addo to outline steps he will be embarking on to completely withdraw CSE from Ghana and how he intends to renegotiate Ghana out of the numerous international agreements he has committed us to. Nothing short of this will and must suffice”.
“This is not the time for the President to play ostrich and keep piling up falsehoods which only create more entanglements for his Government; and most importantly leaves our children’s future in total jeopardy,” the NDC stated.
Story by: Sena Nombo/Radiogoldlive.com
