The Executive Director of the Institute for Education Studies (IFEST), Dr. Peter Anti, has attributed the controversy surrounding alleged LGBT-related content in a teachers’ manual to weaknesses in quality control within the curriculum development process.

Speaking on Joy FM’s Top Story on Thursday, Dr. Anti explained that the content found in teachers’ manuals is drawn directly from the approved curriculum and should ordinarily undergo strict scrutiny before publication.

“The content in the curriculum is what is supposed to be produced in the teachers’ manual. If the quality control aspect of this process was taken seriously, they would have flagged these LGBT issues and quickly dealt with them,” he said.

Dr. Anti described the matter as particularly sensitive, noting that issues related to sexuality are highly controversial within the Ghanaian society and therefore require careful handling by education authorities.

According to him, any reviewer examining the manual should have raised concerns immediately and escalated the matter for further discussion.

“This is a very controversial issue within this community. So if you are reviewing this manual and you see this, your instinct should tell you to discuss it with the authorities and determine whether it should remain,” he added.

He argued that the failure to do so represents where the process went wrong, allowing the contentious content to pass through unchecked.

Dr. Anti further disclosed that the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA) has acknowledged shortcomings in its internal processes and has assured the public that corrective measures are being taken.

“NaCCA has admitted this, and they are saying that they are going to review their own quality control systems, hoping that going forward, this will not happen again,” he stated.