Council denies sex ed in books, as proprietors kick
The National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS), Federal Capital Territory (FCT) chapter, has embarked on an advocacy walk to protest the teaching of Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) in schools and to raise awareness on child abuse in the country.
The walk, which was held in all area councils of the FCT, was meant to oppose inclusion of CSE in textbooks and to call on parents and government to ensure that it did not get into the school curricular.
The proprietors of NAPPS carried placards with different inscriptions in one of the protests in Kubwa.
Former president and member of the board of trustees of NAPPS, Dr. Olubukola Dosunmu, said: “We are saying no to the CSE and government should wake up and ensure that it does not slip into our curriculum anywhere, we are ready to fight it because it is already coming up in some books in the market.”
Dr. Dosunmu told Daily Trust that CSE was allegedly developed by an agency of one of the leading international organisations.
“This is so worrisome because it is teaching sexuality from the angle of human rights and we all know what tends around human rights: rights to be whoever you want to be. It is not because of the rights but the contents are too deep and elicit.”
She said, according to the plan, the teaching of CSE would be given to school children as early as from four years until they reached 18 years, and that it would consist of different sexual lessons, including masturbation.
“That is why we have to step out to do an advocacy for parents that there is danger out there and to sensitise the society and all the various policy makers. We have written a lot to them and we are also carrying out the child sexual abuse aspect; so we are fighting for two things,” she said.
She said the association was educating the public on the difference between traditional sex education and comprehensive sex education, as well as child sexual abuse and what they needed to do.
Therefore, NAPPS called on parents to acquire effective knowledge and share information and ensure good lifestyle for their children.
“Parents need to be aware and wake up to their responsibilities. There are a lot of values we are losing in our society, and it is encouraging these things, and it is beginning to make the work of teachers more difficult,” she added.
She said government must involve the association in the process of developing school curriculum.
Executive Secretary of the National Education Research and Development Council (NERDC), Professor Ismail Junaid, said there was no any plan by authorities to include CSE in the school curriculum and that every stakeholder was involved in the development of the curriculum.
Prof. Junaid said: “Apart from sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV/AIDS, there is no iota of truth that sex education will be taught in schools.”
He said the private schools used textbooks that were not approved by the council and that one of such books contained topics about sex education.