Motherhood in Childhood

PROPORTION OF ADOLESCENTS SURVEYED AGES
12-14, BY SEX AND COUNTRY, ACCORDING TO THEIR
ATTITUDES REGARDING PROVISION OF SEXUALITY
EDUCATION FOR YOUNG PEOPLE, 2004
Sex/country
Females
It is important
that sex
education be
taught in school
12-14 year olds
should be
taught about
using condoms
to avoid AIDS
Providing
sexuality
education to
young people
does not
encourage them
to have sex
Burkina Faso 78 73 63
Ghana 91 49 68
Malawi 67 76 68
Uganda 82 76 49
Males
Burkina Faso 81 78 59
Ghana 89 63 62
Malawi 73 73 68
Uganda 78 76 52
Source: Bankole and Malarcher, 2010.
conscious and informed decisions (paragraphs
7.44 and 11.9). Human rights treaty-monitoring
bodies have called on governments to meet
obligations to provide access to sexuality
education and information.
By reaching adolescents early in puberty,
school settings can provide young people with
the information and skills they will need to make
responsible decisions about their future sexual
lives (Kirby, 2011).
Through school-based comprehensive
sexuality education programmes, educators have
an opportunity to encourage adolescents to
delay sexual activity and encourage them to
behave responsibly when they eventually engage
in consensual sexual activity, particularly by
using condoms and other modern methods of
contraception (Kirby, 2011).
Sexuality education is more likely to have a
positive impact when it is comprehensive and
implemented by trained educators who are
knowledgeable about human sexuality, understand
behavioural training and are comfortable
interacting with adolescents and young people
on sensitive topics. The curriculum should
focus on clear reproductive health goals, such as
preventing unintended pregnancy, and on specific
risk behaviours and protective behaviours
that lead directly to the achievement of those
health goals (Kirby, 2011).
Curriculum-based programmes are more
effective if they also develop life skills, address
contextual factors, and focus on the emerging
feelings and experiences that accompany sexual
and reproductive maturity. To be effective in
preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted
infections, sexuality education should be linked
with reproductive health services, including
contraceptive services (Chandra-Mouli et al.,
2013).
Parents and educators sometimes fear that
sexuality education will encourage adolescents
to have sex. But research shows that sexuality
education does not hasten the initiation of or
increase sexual activity (UNESCO, 2009). A
review of 36 sexuality education programmes in
the United States concluded, for example, that
when information about abstinence and contraception
is provided, adolescents do not become
more sexually active or have an earlier sexual
debut (Advocates for Youth, 2012).
44 CHAPTER 3: PRESSURES FROM MANY DIRECTIONS