The Director-General of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA), Prof Samuel Ofori Obuobisah Bekoe, has issued a public apology following widespread backlash over controversial gender identity content found in a Senior High School teacher’s manual.
The material, which appeared in the Year Two Physical Education and Health (Elective) Teacher Manual, has since been withdrawn after it was distributed to schools nationwide.
Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express on Wednesday, Prof Bekoe said NaCCA did not hesitate to apologise after it became clear that parts of the manual did not align with Ghana’s cultural values.
“When you take responsibility for an institution, you also take responsibility for its lapses,” he said. “So, on behalf of the organisation, I have no difficulty apologising to the Ghanaian public for what happened. At the same time, we are putting strong measures in place to ensure this does not happen again.”
The apology follows NaCCA’s decision to recall printed copies of the manual, which had already been approved, produced with public funds and distributed to schools. The guide was developed in 2024 to support teachers under the new SHS curriculum introduced last academic year.
However, public concern erupted after sections discussing “gender identity” came to light, triggering intense criticism and calls for accountability.
During the interview, host Evans Mensah challenged Prof Bekoe to address parents directly, many of whom feared their children may already have been exposed to the content.
“There’ll be calls today for NaCCA to directly apologise to Ghanaians and parents whose children have been exposed to this,” Evans said.
In response, Prof Bekoe said NaCCA was still assessing how widely the material may have been used, stressing that the subject in question is an elective and not commonly taken by students.
“We don’t want to make assumptions,” he explained. “We’ll send officers into the field to find out. Because it’s an elective course, it’s easier to determine the extent of any exposure.”
He also suggested that classroom use of the manual may have varied, depending on individual teachers.
“Some teachers may choose to use it, others may not, depending on their own views,” he said.
Still unsatisfied, Evans pressed again for a clear apology to parents.
“I didn’t hear a sorry to the parents,” he insisted.
Prof Bekoe then reiterated his apology, while pushing back against suggestions that the content slipped through due to negligence.
“That apology was for everyone,” he said. “We are sorry this material made it into the manual. But it’s not a case of us going to sleep and allowing it to happen.”
He explained that the content passed through existing review processes and was only flagged after public attention was drawn to it.
“It escaped the system until attention was drawn to it,” he said. “Once that happened, we acted. We assure the Ghanaian public that this will not happen again.”
NaCCA has since released a revised version of the manual, which it says now reflects Ghana’s national values and a biological understanding of gender.