There has been much debate and controversy about sex education in schools. When the idea was first introduced in schools twenty years ago, parents were alarmed and voiced their disapproval. But the big wigs in education felt they knew better and so opened up schools to sex education.
The intention was good, to make girls aware of the pitfalls of having sex and falling pregnant while they are still in school. But rather than curb teenage pregnancy in schools, it had the opposite effect.
It aroused their sexual desires and, in recent years, teenage pregnancy has soared to alarming numbers. In 2020, 136 612 girls aged between 15 and 19 fell pregnant. Of these, 33 899 became mothers at 17 years and younger. Even more alarming, 600 of these were little children aged only between10 And 13. How could they become mothers when they are children themselves? It’s bewildering.
So, like OBE, sex education in schools has been a flop.
But Limpopo MEC for education Phopi Ramathuba thought that, being a doctor, she knew better and wanted to be dramatic to get her sex education message across to pupils when she visited Gwenane Secondary School in Sekgakgapeng on the first day of school. ’Open your books and close your legs,’ she admonished the schoolgirls. Crude as it may sound, her intentions were good, of a motherly sort, but it has caused a backlash on social media.
One post on social media asked why she didn’t ask the boys to open their books and close their zips. Others asked why does society always expect women and girls to behave decently and morally while it never chides the male counterparts for their promiscuity? Men can do whatever they like, sleep around with as many women as they wish, and are free to sow their seeds wherever they want, and often walk away with no consequences. Isn’t it time men were manacled and punished for planting their wild oats?
We are now reaping the liberal and enlightened policies of the ANC. Not very liberating for the schoolgirls burdened with motherhood at such a young age.
T Markandan, Kloof.
Daily News