The Deputy Minister of Education, Barbara Asher Ayisi has charged teachers to intensify sex education and issues relating to human sexuality, including menstruation, in schools.
This, according to her, will equip adolescents with the requisite information about the subject to take good care of themselves as they develop into adulthood, adding that that teachers have a significant role to play in the process.
She said: “Menstruation and comprehensive sexual education is part of the curriculum. But it’s unfortunate that when some teachers get to such topics, they do not teach the children, and it is sad.
Most parents unfortunately are not talking to their children about sex, and when they get to school teachers who are supposed to be their mothers and fathers are also not talking about sex, menstruation. Where should our children learn from?”, the Minister further quizzed.
She shared this concern at the Period Not Shame Forum organised by GhOne Television in Accra. The meeting follows the station’s documentary which revealed how some adolescents and women in some rural areas in the country are sometimes restricted from certain engagements as a result of menstruation.
According to the report, women in those areas encounter several forms of discrimination and stigmatisation during their menstrual period.
The event which was attended by policy implementers and other stakeholders seeks to raise awareness about how menstruation serves as barrier for school-going adolescents in some communities, and to cause change through reforms.
It also aims at demystifying the myths surrounding the subject, to bridge harmony between girls’ rights and customs in those areas.
