By Mary Ekemezie
In the directive, the minister acknowledged the inalienable roles of parents as the primary educators of their children. I eagerly await the enforcement of the minister’s directive.
Now, let me respond to Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi’s open letter to the Minister, which was published on November 6, 2022 (the “Letter”). In her letter, Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi urges the Minister of Education, to have a rethink about his directive and to consider retaining sex education in the basic education curriculum, albeit with some modifications.
Before responding to the specific issues raised in the letter, I daresay that
it is a good thing that we are having a national discourse on our national
values, the role of education, religion and parental rights.
In advancing the reasons for her support for the inclusion of sex education in the basic education curriculum, Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi recalled the story of Tanwa, the 13-year-old girl, impregnated by a neighbour. We must not lose sight of how and why Tanwa got pregnant – a neighbour who abused the trust that she reposed in him abused Tanwa.
I sympathise deeply with Tanwa and with every other girl
who has been the victim of sexual abuse. It is a terrible thing to be abused by
persons who are responsible for you. I do hope she got the support she needed
to get past that ugly event and to rebuild her trust in humanity and to forge a
fresh path for herself.
Bisi
Adeleye-Fayemi also alluded to the fact that parents are unable to discharge
their duties of providing sex education to their children because of the
economic situation in the country, which requires them to work round the clock
to make ends meet. This is a sweeping statement if there was ever one. This statement
does not take into consideration that many parents who, despite their
incredibly busy schedule, make time to parent.
In
the Letter, one of the reasons she also proffered to the Minister of Education
to support her position that we should leave sex education in the curriculum,
is that religious leaders are some of the persons on the sexual offenders list.
I have not seen this list, but it is safe to say that not everyone on that list
is a religious leader. It is also safe to say that we do not know the moral
values of all the teachers in the various schools across Nigeria. In much the
same way as she has alluded to religious leaders being sexual offenders,
stories abound in the dailies of teachers abusing children placed in their
care.
Do
not get me wrong, I am not condoning or excusing the vile act of abusing
children physically, or sexually, or in any other manner. I am, however,
constrained to point out that not all religious leaders abuse the position of
trust conferred on them. There are still many good men and women who serve God
with their whole heart and who do the right thing. Should we, then, because of
a small percentage of irresponsible spiritual leaders, take away a service that
these spiritual leaders provide? To spin-back Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi’s argument to
her, how do I know that the teacher in the class is not a paedophile or a sex
groomer who has simply not been caught?
I
turn now to an issue the Letter did not speak to – the actual content of the
sex education that is being provided to Nigerian children, under the guise of
learning. Dear Reader, I crave your indulgence to reproduce some of the texts
(a mixture of indoctrination, half-truths and outright lies) of what children
are learning in school.
In
the inspire video series, the Balance in Nature video which is meant for
students in SS3 encourages sterilisation – the cutting of the sperm duct as a
beautiful method of family planning – and the presenter in the video recommends
it for all men since it is of a permanent nature. The video also
encourages hysterectomy. To put it in context, this video will probably be
seen by students who are aged 14 to 18 years. I leave it to your imagination to
decipher why our educational system is encouraging young children to be
sterilised.
The
Active Basic science, 2014 edition, which is meant for Basic 6 (children aged 9
to 11) describes the actual nature (experience) of the sexual act. Why we need
this level of graphic detail for children in primary school, I do not have an
answer to.
Stigma, a literature textbook,
downplays the dangers of HIV. This literature textbook suggests that
having sex with a condom keeps one safe from HIV. The text does not speak about
the fact that condoms are not foolproof and have been known to fail. It
also encourages kissing HIV patients. Question – are we encouraging our
children to experiment with having sex with HIV patients?
The Basic Science & Technology
for Junior Secondary School 1, which is meant for children aged between 10 and
12 years (maybe 13 years), states that “safe sex” is a way to care for
reproductive organs. Arguably, it could be said that this book is encouraging
children to have “safe sex” as a way of caring for their reproductive organs.
A review of the table of contents of
for this book (Basic Science & Technology for Junior Secondary School 1)
reveals that of the 30 weeks of study in the academic year, 11 weeks (more than
one-third of the contents of the textbook) is devoted to sex, sexual matters
and the reproductive system). I am hard-pressed to understand why we need to
spend so much time discussing sex with children whose primary aim at this stage
of development is the acquisition of knowledge and virtues to guide their way
through life.
The Basic Science & Technology
for Junior Secondary School 1, which is meant for children aged between 10 and
12 years (maybe 13 years), states that “safe sex” is a way to care for
reproductive organs. Arguably, it could be said that this book is encouraging
children to have “safe sex” as a way of caring for their reproductive organs.
A review of the table of contents of
for this book (Basic Science & Technology for Junior Secondary School 1)
reveals that of the 30 weeks of study in the academic year, 11 weeks (more than
one-third of the contents of the textbook) is devoted to sex, sexual matters
and the reproductive system). I am hard-pressed to understand why we need to
spend so much time discussing sex with children whose primary aim at this stage
of development is the acquisition of knowledge and virtues to guide their way
through life.
One of
the topics discussed in the Basic Science & Technology for Junior Secondary
School 2 (a book meant for children between the ages of 10 and 14) is
abstinence. You would think that abstinence means abstaining from sex –
which is what the children need at this age -, but I have news for you.
As presented in the textbook, this topic is ambivalent about the moral value of
abstinence and does not convey the importance and rationale for
abstinence. Given the developmental stage of the children, I would expect
(as was my experience when I was in school), that the focus of the education
would be to teach the children how to make objective judgment calls about the
rightness or wrongness of an action.
Unless the intention of the NERDC and the authors of this textbook
is to encourage children to engage in sexual activities, I would expect that
the focus of the learning at this stage is to enable the children to cultivate
good habits such as delayed gratification, discipline and respect for
themselves and others.
Oh and I forgot to mention, that as part of learning unfamiliar
words in the English Language subject, they introduce children as young as
eight years to the word “masturbation.” Again, I leave it to your imagination
to understand why an eight-year-old needs to learn this word.
I could go on but I guess I have said enough to enable every reader of goodwill
to decide whether we need this kind of sex education in the lives of our
children.
What our
children need, in addition to the acquisition of technical and vocational
skills, is an education which helps them to understand and to develop healthy
habits, good decision-making skills and a strong sense of meaning and
purpose. They need an education that does not lower the bar for them but
calls them to pursue excellence. They need an education that is valued based
and recognises our cultural and religious heritage and the place of morals.
To address the concerns about parents being busy, I propose that as part of the
commencement exercises at the beginning of every academic year, a session on
sex education is organised for parents who can then pass it on to their
children, taking cognisance of their physical, psychological, spiritual and
emotional development.
In addition, we need incentives that support parents to fulfil their parental
duties. We need more family-friendly policies and workplaces at the national
and state levels and we should implement these policies in both the public and
private sectors. There should also be more opportunities for remote-working to
enable parents to spend more time with their children.
Finally and very importantly, the government should provide tax
breaks that encourage and afford parents the opportunity to explore the option
of not having both parents working full time.
*Mary
Ekemezie is a legal practitioner in Lagos.
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