Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) was introduced in 2000 within the subjects of Life Orientation in selected schools to ensure that learners do not get confusing and misleading messages on sex, sexuality, gender, and relationships. The Department of Basic Education realized that Life Orientation is the best vehicle to present sexuality education.
The department has recently released the scripted lesson plans (SLP) on their website, which are being used in the pilot of the education system. SLPâs were introduced in 2015 and are currently being tested in five provinces in order to strengthen the teaching of CSE in schools. They are learner and teacher support materials that are designed to aid teachers and learners to address these important topics in a systematic manner and can be found on: https://www.education.gov.za/Home/ComprehensiveSexualityEducation.aspx.The core aim of the CSE and its SLPs is to ensure that learners are helped to build an understanding of concepts, content, values, and attitudes related to sexuality, sexual behavior change as well as leading safe and healthy lives.
The department said it was extremely concerned that there seems to be lower sexual debut and increasing risky sexual behavior among adolescents and HIV prevention knowledge has declined among learners.
According to a study conducted by M.Makiwane & Z. Mokomane at Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) , despite their high levels of knowledge about HIV and AIDS, young people ages 15-24 years in South Africa remain disproportionately affected by the epidemic.
âResearch findings indicate high birth rates among adolescents and teenagers where more than a third of girls and boys (35.4%) experience sexual violence before the age of 17. This has necessitated the great need for the department to provide age-appropriate child abuse prevention education that builds resilience, confidence, and assertion amongst young people, who often do not know when they are being violated by sexual predators,â said the department.
Furthermore, to increase knowledge about sexual behavior and its consequences, the Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga launched the “Letâs Talk!” Early and Unintended Pregnancy Campaign for adolescents. The campaign is driven by multiple factors that include poverty, lack of information and access to reproductive health services, cultural norms, peer pressure and sexual coercion and abuse. The campaign seeks to reduce early and unplanned pregnancies across 21 countries in the Eastern and Southern Africa region, which has one of the highest adolescent fertility rates in the world.
