The Member of Parliament for Assin South, Rev. John Ntim Fordjour, has criticised the government over what he describes as the covert introduction of controversial sexual rights and gender identity content into Ghana’s education system.

Speaking on Joy FM's Top Story on Tuesday, Rev. Fordjour said the Minority is “appalled and disappointed” by what he termed a series of deliberate actions by the government to suppress the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill in Parliament, while allegedly allowing similar ideas to find their way into school curricula.

He accused the government of deliberately frustrating parliamentary processes by removing the bill from the order paper and preventing Parliament from even considering its first reading.

According to him, these actions now appear to align with developments within the education sector.

Rev. Fordjour alleged that after Parliament approved a general curriculum framework, government agencies proceeded to develop and print teachers’ manuals and textbooks without adequate oversight.

The controversy centred on a specific definition within the Year 2 Physical Education and Health (Elective) Teacher Manual, a supplementary guide developed in 2024 to aid teachers implementing the new SHS curriculum introduced last academic year.

He claimed that hundreds of thousands of copies of the SHS Physical Education and Health teachers’ manual were printed and distributed nationwide.

“This teacher’s manual is the very core of the curriculum,” he said, explaining that it provides pedagogical guidance and directs teachers on what and how to teach students. He expressed concern that the manual goes beyond instruction to define gender and sexual rights in ways he considers alien to Ghana’s Constitution and cultural values.

According to the Assin South MP, the manual introduces concepts he believes promote LGBT ideology, including defining sexual rights as how an individual feels about their sexual orientation without discrimination. He argued that such definitions contradict what he described as Ghana’s accepted understanding of gender as male and female.

“Who gave them the authority to teach these kinds of alien, dangerous concepts to our teachers and learners?” he questioned, adding that government, through the schools, had become “a mouthpiece for LGBT activists.”

Rev. Fordjour is therefore demanding the urgent recall of all affected textbooks and teacher manuals, insisting that the materials pose a threat to societal values and constitutional principles.

His comments follow growing public concern over a controversial definition of gender identity contained in the SHS Physical Education and Health teachers’ manual currently in use in schools.

Meanwhile, the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA) has directed all teachers in possession of hard copies of the manual to return them immediately, amid the ongoing controversy.