“They want to destroy our cultural identity.”

That is how President of the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), Jacob Anaba, has described the controversy surrounding gender-related content found in a withdrawn Senior High School teacher manual.

He further warned that the issue goes beyond an administrative lapse.

Speaking on Joy News’ PM Express on Wednesday, Mr Anaba alleged that the inclusion of the content points to a deliberate agenda by people he believes do not want the Ghana that exists today.

“So one will be very surprised that if you lived in Ghana at that time, you would even contemplate putting it in any document,” he said, recalling earlier public resistance to similar content.

“Those who put it in the manual must be a group of people who do not want the Ghana we have, or they are bent on destroying the cultural identity of this country.”

NaCCA recently withdrew printed copies of the Year Two Physical Education and Health (Elective) Teacher Manual after admitting that sections on “gender identity” did not align with Ghanaian culture, norms and values.

The manual was developed in 2024 as a supplementary guide for the new SHS curriculum introduced last academic year.

It had already been approved, printed with public funds and distributed nationwide before the controversy erupted. A revised version has since been issued, which NaCCA says reflects national values and a biological understanding of gender.

Mr Anaba said the development was troubling, especially given Ghana’s past experience with similar debates.

“If you recall, in 2017, this was put in the curriculum, and we all raised hue and cry about it, and the government promised they were removing it,” he said. “So we are even surprised to hear that it is in the manual and not in the curriculum.”

He said the matter only came to light after teachers raised concerns, insisting that NAGRAT acted immediately once it became aware.

“This was discovered this year, and teachers raised issues about it,” he said. “It came to our attention, and we wrote to NaCCA indicating our displeasure about what we have found in the manual.”

According to him, the nature of the subject made early detection difficult.

“You see, PE is a subject that is not broad,” he said. “The number of teachers in the school is one or two, so it becomes difficult for us to easily discover it.”

Host of the programme, Evans Mensah, asked whether NaCCA responded after NAGRAT formally alerted the council.

“The response was that they were correcting them, so they were making sure that those definitions will be exchanged from the manual,” Mr Anaba said.

Pressed further on whether NaCCA explained how the content ended up in the manual, Mr Anaba pointed to assurances previously given after public backlash years earlier.

“Considering that this happened in 2017, there was a backlash, and we were promised it wouldn’t happen again,” he said. “And they have somehow sneaked into the manual.”

He referenced comments by the NaCCA Director-General, who said he met the manual in preparation when he assumed office.

“Just like the Director-General explained, he said he came and met it,” Mr Anaba said. “But we said that that cannot hold, therefore we wanted it expunged from the manual.”

He confirmed that following NAGRAT’s intervention, NaCCA directed that the books be withdrawn from schools.

“As we speak, they have asked that the books should be withdrawn from the schools,” he said, adding that the association would not accept any attempt to reintroduce such content under any form.