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| Adamu Adamu |
On Tuesday, Civil Society Organisations criticised Adamu Adamu, the education minister, for ordering the National Educational Research Development Council (NERDC) to drop sex education from the curriculum.
Toyin Chukwudozie, executive director of education as a vaccine, disagreed with the direction on behalf of 53 organisations in a statement.
Mr Adamu issued the order to remove sex education from the curriculum at the 66th Ministerial Session of the National Council on Education (NCE).
The minister claimed that sex education ought to be left to parents and religious organisations rather than being taught in schools in a way that would further corrupt young children who have access to phones and other modern conveniences.
But Ms Chukwudozie said the curriculum provided support and guidance for adolescents and young people.
According to her, the FLHE curriculum is a planned process of education that fosters the acquisition of factual information, the formation of positive attitudes, beliefs and values, and the development of skills.
She said this would help them cope with the biological, psychological, sociocultural and spiritual aspects of human living and that the curriculum aimed to provide information and skills necessary for young people to make rational decisions about their bodies.
Ms Chukwudozie added that the curriculum was not against any religious or cultural groups or teachings in the country.
She recalled that in June 2022, the minister signed the Freetown Manifesto on Gender Transformative Leadership in Education on behalf of the government, committing to supporting strategies to address harmful gender norms in pedagogy.
According to her, the FLHE is one strategy the ministry of education has employed to achieve this.
(NAN)