‘Learn Sex From Your Peers’ – Minister Adamu Opposes Sex Education In Schools

The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, has said that he believes sex education should not be taught in schools.

He expressed that there are other ways through which children can learn about it, including from their peers, but that teaching sex education in schools would undermine the moral fiber of our society.

Adamu said this while delivering the keynote address at the 66th Meeting of the National Council on Education (NCE) which was held in Abuja on Thursday.

He explained that instead of learning about it in the classrooms, children could learn through instinct, amongst their peers, or through religious instructions.

“I am one of those who believes sex education should not be taught. There are three ways through which Sex Education could profitably be imparted without any issues. One is instinctual, Instincts will be the first teacher for you. Second, is the process of socialization. There are so many things that you are not taught in school or at home, but you learn it from your peers.

“Finally, we have religious instructions. In addition to what the parents should do I believe, and this is a personal opinion, that all the efforts trying to promote sex education or this LGBTQ and so on, is done in order to undermine the moral fiber of our society, which is the only thing that we have. We don’t have anything better than these religious beliefs that we have, I am not a preacher but as the Minister of Education, I am the head teacher in this country.

He reiterated that everything about the topic was harmful and that those advocating for it were just being carried away by the practices of the Western world.

“It is very serious, and even though we have allowed religion to become a big issue in Nigeria, I want to say that Nigerians are the best Christians in the world and, they might not be the best, but they are some of the most prayerful Muslims in the world.

“I spoke to the NERDC (Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council) and I asked why I was still seeing something on sex education, and I was assured that it has been debated and that if there are any harmful aspects, they have been taken out, but my opinion is that everything there is harmful.

“We are carried away because we see that the Western world is advanced technologically and we think that whatever comes from them is good, which is not true. Even technology is not always good, the only thing that technology gives to our lives is speed it doesn’t make anything better,” he said.

Speaking on basic and tertiary education administration in the country, Adamu said he believes that there should either be two education ministries or two state ministers for education.

“The other issue is that in 2016, I recommended to the President that there should be two Ministries of Education, a Ministry of Basic Education and a Ministry of Higher Education. If they don’t want to create two ministries, we should have two Minister of State where one should be in charge of basic education and the other should be in charge of Higher Education.

“Four days ago I was at the meeting of the National Council of Skills and when it was my turn to speak, I suggested to the Vice President, although it is too late for this government, I hope whoever is heading the next government will have the good sense to create a Ministry of Skills and Entrepreneurship. I do believe there should be a Ministry for that because And if it will not be created, because creating just a small department for it within the Education Ministry is inadequate. The whole world is moving towards skills now, we just need a Ministry for it”, he explained.

Speaking on school safety, he chastised state government’s on not doing enough to ensure the safety of students in their schools.

“Also, I want to tell states that they are not doing enough on school safety. I know it is a general malaise on all of us within the country, but states should start doing what the Ministry of Education is doing to ensure there is safety for all”, he said.

He also spoke on the Ministry’s efforts to provide accurate data records as that had been unavailable when his administration came into office.

“Distinguished delegates, the importance of accurate, timely and reliable data for successful planning and implementation of education policies and programmes cannot be over-emphasized. There were issues of non-availability and non-reporting of education data which we had to tackle headlong when we came into office in 2015.

“This was particularly painful for me because when I became Minister and we started the process of planning, we needed to have data and statistics on certain issues and they were not available. We turned to UNESCO, the Institute of Statistics, and to the World Bank, and what was painful was that data for all other countries were there but in Nigeria, they would just say ‘not available’ so we got to work.

“I’m happy to announce that with sustained efforts and commitment, we have been able to overcome the problems bedeviling the production and reporting of reliable, credible, and timely national educational data. This is evidenced by the publication of the ‘Nigeria Digest of Education Statistics 2014 2015 and subsequently, 2017, 2018 and 2019. While 2020 and 2021 editions are under production and this will close the gap in reporting of Nigeria Education data to all foreign portals so that it is accessible to all,” he said.