Finally, condoms in schools
THE decision taken by the Department of Basic Education to make condoms available in schools across the country is long overdue. As a country we are confronted by frightening statistics of teenage pregnancy and a high rate of HIV infections.
Department spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga boldly stated that parents had failed miserably to do their job, and that was why the government was getting involved. Mhlanga’s pronouncements come in the wake of the gazetting of the National HIV, STI and TB policy early this month.
The policy will “facilitate” the availability of condoms and HIV/Aids education in schools. It states that access to male and female condoms, and information on their use, will be made available to all pupils in the sector, as well as all teachers, school support staff and officials.
While it is not our job to apportion blame, we are of the opinion that a lack of action by the department would spell disaster for the future of our children.
It is imperative that we confront the big elephant in the room – sex. The current generation is starting sexual intercourse much earlier than previous generations.
As a result they are unable to make informed decisions that would protect their lives. Every year we are confronted with startling figures of teenage pregnancy in our schools, and we always react with shock, only to forget and move on to other pressing issues.
It was recently disclosed that 803 pupils fell pregnant last year, and 19 of them were in Grade 3. This obviously leads to the phenomenon of teenage mothers, whose children grow up in poverty with very little chance of breaking the cycle.
However, we are not naive enough to think that the distribution of condoms will be the silver bullet to our high HIV infection rate and teenage pregnancy.
We support the call made by Joan van Niekerk, a child protection consultant, that such initiatives must be linked with the appropriate education.
The consequences of doing nothing about this scourge would be too dire to contemplate.