The National Commission on Small Arms and Light Weapons (NACSA) today convened a high-level national dialogue to commemorate World Children’s Day, focusing on the theme:
“Disarming the Alphabet: Reforming Educational Content to Prevent Early Gun Familiarization.”
The event brought together key institutions whose mandates influence child development, safety, and educational regulation, including the Ministry of Education, Ghana Education Service (GES), National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA), Ghana Armed Forces Education Directorate, Ghana Publishers Association, Ghana Psychology Council, Baraka Policy Institute, Ghana Publishers Association, Africa Eduwatch, Ghana Book Development Council, Ghana Publishers Association, media partners, and other prominent stakeholders.
This engagement forms part of NACSA’s preventative strategy to address early symbolic exposure to guns in Teaching and Learning Materials (TLMs) a concern identified through the Commission’s PPRME early-warning survey, which discovered children’s books depicting “G is for Gun” and other weapon illustrations circulating on the open market.
Key Highlights from the Event
Dr. Derek Oppong speaking on the psychological dimension, emphasized the developmental dangers of normalizing guns through children’s books, cartoons, and digital media. He explained how popular animations like Tom and Jerry, video games such as Call of Duty, and fictional depictions of arrows, bombs, and guns distort a child’s understanding of harm.
He noted that these portrayals often “misinterpret death as a reversible trance,” making violence appear trivial, humorous, or without consequence a risk factor for curiosity, desensitization, and later behavioral imitation.
Madam Joana Vanderpuije, Director of Instructional Resources at NaCCA, highlighted the urgent need for legal instruments to strengthen their authority to audit learning materials and enforce compliance. She acknowledged that many unscreened books enter the market through informal channels. She commended NACSA’s leadership on the issue and called for a collaborative nationwide field survey to identify and remove harmful TLMs.
In her words: “A curriculum that projects guns cannot preserve peace.”
Dr. Victor Doke, Security Analyst and Lecturer at KAIPTC, connected early symbolic exposure to broader security threats. He explained how national and regional trends show an escalation in youth involvement in gun proliferation, cultism, and violent peer-group influence. Dr. Doke noted that sociocultural normalization through media, music, and social behavior “glamorizes guns and embeds them in youth identity formation,” enabling aggression to be expressed through guns during conflicts.
The Commission is working with relevant partners to ensure cognitively safe TLMs for the betterment of Ghanaian Children
