Durban - South African schoolchildren are having sex at a younger age and many of them are ignorant about HIV.
With increasing numbers of children making their sexual debut before the age of 15, and condom use declining, the Basic Education Department has said it is determined to improve sex education in classrooms, and provide access to HIV prevention for pupils.
On Wednesday, data presented by the department at the SA Aids Conference in Durban revealed 7.6% of KwaZulu-Natal children and nearly 11% of all South African children had started having sex before the age of 15.
In 2002, those figures stood at 4.9% for KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) and 5% for the country.
In 2008, 47% of children in KZN, aged 15 and older, reported that they had used a condom the last time they had had sex, but this was true for only 39.6% in 2012 (36% nationally).
Research has revealed Aids-related deaths are declining in all age groups, except among 10-19-year-olds.
Young women are particularly at risk – the HIV incidence rate among girls and women aged 15 to 24 is more than four times higher than that found in men in this same group.
Adolescent girls have eight times the infection rate of boys of the same age.
Granville Whittle, the deputy director-general of social mobilisation and support services at the department, explained to delegates that 37% of children in grades 8-11 made their sexual debut early, and that a third of pupils in grades 8-11 were often involved in binge drinking.
Research also showed that Grade 6 pupils knew little about HIV.
Life orientation and sex education were the key in protecting pupils, Whittle said. It was not enough to give pupils access to condoms – without comprehensive sexuality education, they would simply not use them.
“Politically, we must raise the status of life orientation. Education is a protective factor,” Whittle argued.
Faith Kumalo, the department’s chief director for care and support in schools, said the key messages in the sex education curriculum were: delay sexual debut; the right to say no; use condoms every time; get tested for HIV and sexually transmitted infections; and both partners must act responsibly.
Kumalo said through its new draft policy on HIV, sexually transmitted infections and tuberculosis, South Africa was the first country to have its education sector develop a response to the twin epidemics.
That the draft policy proposed access to condoms and voluntary testing for pupils had been fiercely debated and the department was still mulling over the best way for pupils to have access to these.
The other panellists stressed that global reviews of sex education programmes had shown sex education did not increase sexual activity, but did increase knowledge and awareness.
Farley Cleghorn, the chief knowledge officer of global health consulting firm the Futures Group, said although “controversial”, what school-based sexuality education did was:
* Delay sexual debut.
* Reduce the number of sexual partners a person had.
* Increase the use of condoms and other methods of contraception.
* Reduce pregnancy and rates of sexually transmitted infections.
The Mercury