From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, has disagreed with people that are strongly promoting sexual education in the Nigeria school system, stressing that such education is needless and shouldn’t be encouraged at all.
He registered his concerns that allowing such education in the school system would further destroy the society and it will affect the future generations.
He stated that all available evidences indicated that sex education in schools does more harm than good to the students, hence he has directed the Nigeria Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) to quickly review the curriculum and expunge any sexual education content in curriculum being used in schools in Nigeria.
The Minister, in his keynote address at the 66th National Council on Education (NCE) meeting in Abuja, on Thursday, said that Nigeria is a nation that has and promote religious and cultural values, suggesting that such should be maintained so the posterity of Nigeria can be properly guided.
He said: “While I accompanied the President to his recent trip to the New York, one highly placed government official called my attention to certain materials on sex education being used in schools, and I almost collapsed because I never expected that.
“I am one of those persons who believe that sex education should not be taught in our schools. Rather, such knowledge and experience should shared through other means that are known to man.
“For me, there are three ways through which sex education could profitably be impacted on adults. First is instinctual. Instinct will be the first teacher for you as regards sex and several other things when the time comes.
“The second way is through the process of socialization. Many other things that are not taught in schools or at home comes through the process of socialization which most often, are acquired through interactions or engagements with peers.
“Then the third way is through the religious and cultural instructions. From all indications, the increasing advocacy for sex education in schools is targeted at undermining and destroying the moral and religious fiber of our society. Regrettably, it’s being promoted through the social media and other forms of westernization.
“Many Nigerians seem to believe that all that comes from the western world is the best because they have advanced in technology. Even the technology is not totally good. The only thing technology does to our lives is speed. It doesn’t make one a better person or something else.
“We don’t have any thing better than the religious beliefs and values we have in Nigeria, and we all love our religions. Unfortunately, religion has been misinterpreted and we have allowed it to reshape our lives negatively. We can’t afford to loose our religious values, otherwise, we would loose everything and doom would beckon.”
The Minister, however, confirmed that NERDC has been directed to expunge all sexual education content in the curriculum. “NERDC Executive Secretary, had in response told me that they would debate on the matter and expunge harmful parts, but I told him outrightly that everything there is harmful and should be discarded.”