The Member of Parliament for Assin South, Rev John Ntim Fordjour, has called for the immediate dismissal of the Director General of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA), accusing the office of negligence over controversial content in a teacher’s manual in use in schools.

Citing three reasons, Rev Ntim Fordjour said the Director General must be removed. “The Director General of NaCCA must be fired for one, sleeping on the job; two, being complicit in this grand LGBT agenda; and thirdly, coming to spill falsehoods to Ghanaians,” he said.

Speaking in an interview on JoyNews’ AM Show on Wednesday, January 14, while discussing the ongoing NaCCA curriculum case and issues surrounding gender definition, Rev Fordjour said the Council failed to properly review the material before it was printed, distributed, and taught in classrooms.

According to him, NaCCA’s claim that the content had been reviewed is false, insisting that the disputed definitions remain in the so-called revised version of the manual.

“As we speak, their so-called revised version, which they edited yesterday, still bears the definition of sex, sexuality, and sexual orientation as pertained in this book,” he said.

He said that any genuine review should have taken place before the manuals were printed and circulated nationwide.

“If they indeed did their job well and they didn’t sleep on the job, or it’s not their deliberate agenda, before the book will even be printed, that is the time to do a review. You don’t do reviews when you have already printed the wrong things, circulated it, enforced it, and it has already been taught for two weeks in the classroom.”

He described NaCCA’s explanation as misleading, saying the content was only edited after concerns were raised publicly.

“That is a lie. Because if they reviewed it, they would have flagged it even before going to print. We flagged it just yesterday. Go online and you’ll see it. Just yesterday, they edited it. So that is a big lie.”

He said that the most urgent concern is that the teacher manuals are still in circulation and actively being used in schools. “As we speak, this is the teacher manual in the hands of teachers. This is what is really important,” he said.

The Assin South MP questioned why no formal directive has been issued to withdraw the manuals or guide teachers on how to address what he described as harmful content already taught.

“Have you seen any directive directed at heads of schools, regional directors of education, teachers, and HODs in physical education that henceforth we are recalling all teacher manuals, that they must relinquish them and discard them from classrooms?” he asked.

He further criticised NaCCA’s response as slow and reactive, saying it took several hours after the issue was raised for the Council to issue a statement, which he described as poorly written and error-filled.

“It was just yesterday, reactively and rather irresponsibly and incompetently, after we had flagged it, that they released the statement. It was riddled with a lot of mistakes and errors,” he said.

Rev. Fordjour also cited a separate interview conducted by Joy FM with the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), stating that they are not aware of any steps taken by NaCCA.

“They said they are not aware of any steps NaCCA has taken to enforce whatever they are saying they are going to do by recalling these manuals. So who did they write to? Who did they give that instruction to? And what steps are they taking?”

“These books are still in the classrooms, and teachers are being forced to teach this poison to our students,” Rev Fordjour added.

Read also: NaCCA recalls SHS Physical Education & Health teachers’ manual over gender controversy