Prince Hamid Armah, former head of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA), has warned that a well-resourced non-governmental organisation (NGO) is dominating the country’s education policy space, weakening the statutory role of national institutions.

Armah made this revelation in a Facebook post on Saturday (17 January) indicating that NaCCA and other education bodies are increasingly sidelined during policy development.

“A well-resourced NGO has taken over the education policy development space, weakening the statutory role of our institutions. NaCCA and many other education institutions are gradually being paralysed at the policy development stage”, Armah, who served as MP for Effia Kwesimintsim wrote.

“They no longer lead. They follow,” he added.

His comments come after calls by the parliamentary minority for the removal of the current NaCCA boss, following disputes around the implementation of sexuality education in the national curriculum.

Armah did not identify the NGO by name, but his remarks underscore tensions between statutory education authorities and external actors in shaping curriculum and policy in Ghana.

NaCCA, established to regulate curriculum and assessment in Ghanaian schools, has faced growing scrutiny in recent months over the inclusion of sexual and reproductive health education, prompting public debate and political attention.

Following public criticism, NaCCA announced the withdrawal of the document and said a revised version had been produced under the supervision of the Ministry of Education, a position later referenced by Deputy Education Minister Clement Apaak.

Old Tafo MP, Vincent Ekow Assafuah has however revealed that the document withdrawn by NaCCA defined gender identity as a person’s deeply felt internal experience of gender, which may or may not correspond with sex assigned at birth.

“That was serious and disturbing,” he said, adding that such definitions were not rooted in Ghana’s approved curriculum framework.

Assafuah said the revised document worsened the situation by defining sexuality and sexual orientation as a person’s pattern of emotional and sexual attraction to others, without specifying attraction to the opposite sex.

“That definition now tells our teachers that a man can express romantic and emotional feelings to anyone. They did not limit it to the opposite sex,” he said.

He also criticised sections defining sexual and reproductive health rights as the right of individuals to make informed decisions about their sexual lives without discrimination, coercion or violence.

According to Assafuah, the revised material recognises sexual rights, including sexual pleasure, bodily autonomy and freedom from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender.

“This revised version is even worse than the one that has been withdrawn,” he said. “How do you withdraw one document and replace it with something more problematic?”

The MP rejected claims that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) introduced comprehensive sexuality education into Ghana’s curriculum, insisting that the curriculum framework reviewed under the NPP government in 2022 contains no references to gender identity, sexual orientation or sexual rights.

He challenged the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) to identify where such terms appear in the NPP-approved framework or curriculum.

Assafuah also criticised religious leaders who welcomed NaCCA’s withdrawal of the original document, saying they should not endorse a revised version that, in his view, introduces broader and more controversial definitions.