DAKAR (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Government and U.N. officials in Ghana were forced to defend a school sex education program on Tuesday after religious groups said it was part of a “satanic” attempt to promote LGBT+ values.

The National Coalition for Proper Human Sexual Rights and Family Values, said on radio and Facebook that 6 was too young to start learning about sex and criticized a module called “being a male or female”. But officials said the Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) program, which was devised by the United Nations and Ghana’s government, had no explicit LGBT+ content.

Ghana’s education minister gave a press conference on Tuesday urging critics to check the facts and assuring them that the curriculum - which has not yet been implemented - would not compromise national values.

U.N. officials went on television to try to calm the uproar. “They think it’s all based on foreign influence. That’s the issue,” said Niyi Ojuolape, country representative for the U.N. Population Fund in Ghana, emphasizing that the curriculum was designed by Ghanaians with the local context in mind. Read more via Reuters