Durban - The hit-and-miss manner in which HIV and sexuality education is taught in many life-orientation classrooms has prompted the government to develop scripted lessons for the subject.
Teachers uncomfortable with sexuality education, squeezed school timetables and gaps in the curriculum content meant life orientation was not adequately addressing HIV and sexuality education, the Basic Education Department acknowledged on Monday.
The national department on Monday held a meeting on HIV and sexuality education at schools, ahead of the start of the seventh SA Aids Conference in Durban on Tuesday.
The meeting was attended by senior education officials, academics, teachers and pupils.
The scripted lesson plans had been designed to help the teaching of key concepts and content for grades 7 to 9, said independent education consultant Jenny Kinnear, a former curriculum director in the national department.
Aligned to the new Caps curriculum, the plans are now being piloted in schools in Gauteng.
A positive consequence of the plans is that life orientation teachers ccannot skip or haphazardly teach certain content. An example handed to delegates on Monday clearly sets out a brief summary of the lesson, its key points, activities, homework and an assessment task.
That life-orientation lessons should be scripted to ensure that they were standardised was one of the recommendations of research undertaken by the University of KwaZulu-Natal, and which was made public at the fifth SA Aids Conference two years ago.
The research was commissioned by the national department, and conducted by the university’s health economics and HIV and Aids research division.
Research author Gavin George had sought to understand the factors that supported and hindered the teaching and learning of life orientation, particularly regarding sexuality education.
George conducted in-depth interviews and observed Grade 9 and Grade 11 life-orientation lessons at schools in the uMgungundlovu (Pietermaritzburg) district, as The Mercury previously reported.
The schools varied from the poorest to the most affluent.
Encouragingly, some of the schools surveyed employed specialist life-orientation teachers who demonstrated passion and commitment, and gave academic and emotional support, George found.
However, in many classrooms, not enough time was devoted to life orientation, which was regarded as a “filler” subject.
The teachers were inadequately trained and, at the poorest schools, had poor resource material.
When it came to HIV/Aids and sexuality education, some of the lessons were “fear-based”, oversimplified and sometimes inaccurate, George said.
He argued that when properly taught, life orientation was able to influence pupils’ attitudes and behaviour, and provided pupils with information about HIV/Aids and sexuality which they would not get at home.
While addressing the meeting on Monday, Edna Rooth, a former education lecturer who has a PhD in life orientation, cited findings from the Human Sciences Research Council which revealed that knowledge about HIV had declined among South Africans.
“Early onset of sexual activity, sexual intercourse without using a condom, multiple partners and a lack of knowledge is apparent,” Rooth said. She argued for the importance of life orientation as the “home” of HIV and sexuality education to ensure that it was taught in a “proper and professional” manner.
Rooth said that sexuality was generally taught only as related to HIV and sexually transmitted infection (STI) prevention, and from a negative perspective that instilled fear and revulsion.
It was at the fifth SA Aids conference that the department first unveiled its draft policy on HIV, STIs and tuberculosis, which was published in the Government Gazette last month.
The department recently extended the deadline for public comment on the policy to June 19.
The policy seeks to:
* Increase knowledge of HIV/ Aids, TB, and STIs among pupils, teachers, school support staff and officials.
* Improve access to HIV, STI and TB prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care.
* Increase the retention of pupils, teachers, school support staff and officials.
While the policy has been welcomed by several civil society organisations, that it proposes giving pupils access to condoms and voluntary testing has been fiercely objected to by some.
The Mercury