QUTHING
Holy Trinity High
By : ‘Mamohaila Rampo
Life Skills Based Sexuality Education (LBSE) curriculum is in line with the globally known Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE). It has been implemented at lower basic education from Grade 4 to Grade 6 in the integrated curriculum. In 2016 LBSE was piloted in 70 schools in Grade 7 and 100 schools in Grade 8 as a stand-alone subject. In 2017 it was implemented countrywide in both Grades 7 and 8. This article focuses primarily on Holy Trinity High School.
Representing girls in Holy Trinity High School Liteboho Mochekoane said; “We face a lot of challenges, but Life skills-based sexuality Education helps a lot and has become the shift in our daily old norms.”
On behalf of boys, Makhele Makhele said lifestyle education has changed his mind and made him more focused in school. “It helped me to become a better person, some people do not like LBSE because they rely on myths, but they do not get the relevance in their daily lives,” he said.
According to the Ministry of Health statics in the country, teenage pregnancy is at 23% among rural teenagers and 12% among their urban counterparts.
Holy Trinity High School Acting Principal Mabasia Thaele said CSE education is important because it addresses real-life issues that teenagers are faced with. “Holy trinity is faced with a lot of challenges, among others is the high number of high school dropout, out of 676 students this year 63 have dropped out,” she reported.
She mentioned that challenges include poverty and vulnerability that affect students. Among teen girls, the principal highlighted intergenerational relationships in which most adolescents are tempted to find sugar daddies and sugar mummies to make ends meet. She also mentioned that appropriate life skills and positive attitudes in most adolescents lead toself-value, confidence, decision-making, assertiveness and peer pressure resistance to mention a few.
It is also critical to note that Sexuality, is much more than sexual intercourse. It is about one’s body image, gender, biological changes, relationships and all thoughts, feelings and behaviours in both males or females.
