| dc.description.abstract | South Africa has high rates of HIV infection among its young population, high rates of unintended pregnancy
among the youth, and extremely high rates of gender-based violence. Given all this, it is essential that young
people be taught skills that will enable them to manage their sexuality. Schools have been shown to be best
placed to provide accurate and relevant information on young people’s sexualities. Through the Life Orientation
(LO) curriculum, the Department of Basic Education (DBE) offers age-appropriate sexuality education as a
response to these concerns. However, research in sexuality education shows that there is a lack of guidance and
preparedness by educators, and this hampers how sexuality education is delivered in South African schools. A
recent attempt by the DBE to upscale and strengthen the sexuality education curriculum in South African
schools was met with resistance from parents and other lobby groups. This resistance was driven across many
different media platforms, and particularly through an online hashtag #LeaveOurKidsAlone, largely on
Facebook and Twitter. Through this resistance, we are introduced to parents/adult response to the teaching and
learning of comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) in South African schools, a voice that has been missing to
a great extent in this debate. | en_US |
