DURBAN - With the distribution of condoms at public schools being recently gazetted by the Department of Basic Education, some religious and parents associations feared this would promote sex among pupils.
Teachers’ unions, on the other hand, welcomed the policy, based on the number of teenage pregnancies.
The department gazetted the Integrated Schools Health Policy that includes making condoms available to pupils at public schools.
Matakanye Matakanye, the National Association of School Governing Bodies general secretary, said they would make sure that the implementation of this policy, especially the distribution of condoms, and HIV and Aids testing, was not done at school.
“We would not want a situation where condoms are distributed or placed in a toilet where primary schoolchildren have access to them,” he said.
According to the policy, health workers would visit schools to conduct health education on issues such as HIV, Aids and tuberculosis, and refer pupils for screenings on request. They would also make condoms available to them on request.
Ashwin Trikamjee, the president of the Hindu Maha Sabha, said they were disappointed with the department.
“As a religious organisation, we are concerned as we believe that this will encourage sexual activity. Our alternative proposal has been to encourage our children to practice responsibility,” said Trikamjee.
The Diakonia Council of Churches declined to comment.
Nadas Pillay, deputy president of the SA Tamil Federation, said they supported the policy purely on the basis that it made provision for sexual education. At the same time, they would also closely monitor that making condoms available to pupils was not done in a way that promoted sex.
“We prescribe marriage before sex and discourage people from engaging in sexual activities at a young age, but we live in a day where teenagers go against this rule,” he said.
Policy
Pillay said the policy would do more harm than good to primary school pupils as this might be misunderstood and make them want to experiment with sex.
According to the South Africa Demographic and Health Survey conducted last year, about 12% of women aged between 15 and 19 had already given birth and another 3% were pregnant.
The age-specific fertility rate for teenagers was 71 births per 1000 women aged between 15 and 19, showing little change since 1998.
The provincial Department of Education allocated R56 million in its recent budget for the different programmes fighting against social ills such as teenage pregnancy, HIV, Aids and others.
The National Teachers’ Union (Natu) said, as part of its own intervention strategy, it had been distributing condoms to 2800 schools in KwaZulu-Natal and 1500 schools in Mpumalanga since 2009.
Allen Thompson, Natu deputy president, said they were happy the department had finally given in and passed the policy.