‘Teachers lack knowledge on Gender and Sexuality Education’
TEACHERS in the country’s schools lack adequate training on Gender and Sexuality Education, compromising efforts by the Government to mainstream the subject in the schools’ curriculum, a gender expert has observed.
Under the new curriculum, the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education has introduced Gender and Sexuality Education from Early Childhood Development (ECD) up to Advanced Level.
In an interview with Sunday News, the Southern African HIV and Aids Information Dissemination Service (SAfAids) executive director Mrs Lois Chingandu commended the Government for mainstreaming Gender and Sexuality Education in the schools’ curriculum.
She, however, noted that the efforts may not yield the desired result as most teachers were unable to effectively teach the subject due to lack of adequate knowledge.
“We do find that in most schools that we work with teachers really struggle to teach Gender and Sexuality Education.
“Training on gender should be integrated into teacher training so that when the teachers graduate they will be well equipped to effectively teach the subject,” she said.
Mrs Chingandu recommended that the Government allows teachers to major in Gender and Sexuality as a subject during teacher training as is the case with other subjects such as Mathematics and English, among others to enable effective teaching of the area in schools.
She also bemoaned what she feels is inadequate time allocated to the subject in schools, adding that her organisation would continue lobbying the Government to increase the time up from 30 minutes a week.
“Of course we feel the subject is not being given adequate time and our argument is if this is a life skill why not give due recognition and prominence.
“You can have brilliant students, who because of lack of knowledge end up with HIV and that would be a waste.
“We continue to lobby for the subject to be given more time, but meanwhile we are using the club that we set up in the schools to complement the 30 minutes given to the subject and what the teacher would have done,” she said. She added: “Guidance and Counselling (under which gender and sexuality are taught) is given 30 minutes in every school. So we feel with adequate training for teachers and the right material, the subject can be taught effectively.
“We also argue that teachers should specialise in this area during their training and become Gender and Sexuality Education teachers only.
“That way the subject can be effectively taught in schools”.
Mrs Chingandu said her organisation was willing to assist in training teachers on Gender and Sexuality Education to allow them to teach the subject well.
“What we are asking the Ministry (of Primary and Secondary Education) is to allow us to train their teachers so that they are competent.
“What we saw in schools that we have worked with was that the teachers have been transformed and are now competent to teach guidance and counselling, where gender and sexuality is covered,” she said.
The introduction of Gender and Sexuality Education in schools is part of efforts to increase sexual reproductive health knowledge among young people.
Lack of adequate information has been pointed out as one of the major drivers of adolescent sexual and reproductive health challenges in the country.
The country is still far from attaining targets set to eradicate Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health challenges.
Teenage pregnancies remain as high as 22 percent, down from 24 percent in 2012 when the Government set a target to reduce them to 12 percent by 2020. According to latest Zimbabwe Demographic Health Survey (ZDHS), nearly one in 10 girls give birth every year.