In the pursuit of higher and further education, I decided to read development communication. The motivation is, since my young adulthood, at least when I could distinguish between what a kitchen knife was from fighting knives like the Cold Steel Spartan Folding Knife (which, as against the former, could be used to topple a sitting government), I observed a bizarre trend in Ghana’s politics – government found it difficult to introduce new policies intended to solve the challenges facing its citizens. 

This academic journey has therefore been to understand what we (the state and citizens) may not be doing right in conceiving, conceptualizing, planning, implementing and evaluating our policies. Is it that the state over the years have only focused on implementing policies in the name of partisan reforms and legacies (which are the oxygen for staying in power) or policies which are rooted in her constitutional role of dignity, citizen empowerment, equitable distribution of resources and good governance to citizens? Are we, citizens still traditional or hypocritical, in the words of many social commentators?

After the recent backlash faced by the Ghana Education Service, the Ministry and the government, on the implementation of the proposed Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) course, I am certain of one of the answers to the above questions - Our problem as a country has been how to effectively use communication to inform, educate and in rare occasions entertain the citizenry about the need for social change.

In Ghana, every government, one way or the other, attempts to change something when they come into power. These changes come in the form of either abandoning newly constructed schools, medical centers; or renaming these public facilities; or clearing individuals known to be associated with the opposition; or introducing social intervention projects to reduce the sufferings of the less privileged.

Fortunately, and unfortunately, some of these policies have only survived the concept stages because of the lack of effective approach adopted to implement them.

Just like many parts of the world, the culture of our people makes most Ghanaians conventionalists, a people whose moral principles are justified so far as society accepts such doctrines. Sex to many here is a taboo and though arguably due to the changing times, it remains so, we have seen it in these few days.

It is therefore important that policymakers adopt the participatory approach in advocating for social change especially those that will have to be carried out in the forgotten corners of the country. In doing this, development communicators, government and social actors recognize that the chief is powerful, sometimes even more powerful than a flagbearer of a political party (at least until the latter becomes president).

Also, this concept sees the village teacher as a major opinion leader whose lesson notes on sexuality education can either entice his pupils to experiment sex at a tender age, opt for contraceptives or better still abstain.  The village teacher and her inputs are highly revered by the Minister in charge of Education and until he hears from her through broad stakeholder engagements, he (the Minister) may not proceed with planning such a policy.

But in most cases, the teacher and even the headmaster, relinquish their roles to the mother or father who is part of the primary socialization agency.

After the unanimous refusal of the CSE policy at its implementation stages, the Minister was forced to clarify the new curriculum does not include the proposed content. I am forced to believe the issue will hence be swept under the carpet in order to maintain a good name. However, sex and its education is as important as comparing GDPs among present and past governments. It is as important as the taxes and tariff increments in country. Even though sex and its related issues among teenagers in this country seem to be a taboo and abomination, Ghana must revisit this concept but with the right approach this time around. And I believe one sure way is to focus on teachers but more importantly, our parents as far as sexuality education is concerned.

Growing up, my mother played an instrumental role in my education on certain matters. According to her, she could not trust her children in the hands of the society that had little direction for the youth on what was right or wrong and the basic things a child from a serious home should know before the age of seven. So, she would begin my weekends during my fifth year with lessons on how to use the fork and knife (cutlery).

At midnights of my fifteenth year or so, she would disturb my sleep with boring lectures on ‘girlfriend, boyfriend’, bodily and hormonal changes I may be experiencing. Back in school, my teacher on the other hand, could only joke around these issues because her concept about these issues may be controversial. The far she will go will be to incite the girls in the class against some of us the boys. She will leave it there! We also had a counsellor who received her monthly salary but could only boast of counselling only her children back home at the end of the month.

Parental language is very different from instructional and educational languages mostly used in the classroom. Parents’ possible approach to carrying on the content of the CSE may be different as compared to teachers. Whilst some say the contact hours between the teacher and the student may be more than that between them and their parents back at home, policies like the Free SHS has also shown that some students spend some measurable period at home.

Sex education should not begin at a stage or age but when the parent start observing signs of curiosity in that area, especially for children with record-breaking abilities.

We need to go back to the board, consult widely and properly and come back to solve these health issues. We must do this with speed as the higher democracies that we compare ourselves with daily, are widening the gap day by day.

Kabu Nartey is a 2017 Kufuor Scholars Fellow. He is the 2019/2020 best graduating student in print journalism and the 2019 most promising journalist of GIJ.