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Locadia Mavhudzi Midlands Correspondent
Zimbabwe National Family Planning Council (ZNFPC) has rolled out a comprehensive sex education campaign in schools around the Midlands Province, with various workshops targeting guidance and counselling teachers to equip them with modern approaches to sex education.

ZNFPC Midlands provincial marketing and communication officer Mr Nyasha Marima told a provincial adolescent sexual and reproductive forum that they will start engaging guidance and counselling teachers in Kwekwe District next week.

“We will be in Kwekwe for the next two weeks engaging all guidance and counselling teachers in all schools,” he said.
“Comprehensive sexuality education has become a critical component of education in line with the new curriculum.

“The new school health policy requires that sexual knowledge be embraced from early stages of education such as primary schools. In this regard, we will be equipping them with the latest approaches to disseminate sexual information to various age groups.”

Mr Marima said they continued to encourage abstinence in schools, although the adolescent age group had been identified as a key population with high rates of unprotected sex.

“Providing information and education is only one component of influencing change of an individual’s behaviour,” he said.
“The major drivers for adolescent sexual and reproductive health challenges are poverty and lack of access to information. The major problem is knowledge. In-school comprehensive sexuality education helps plug that information gap.”

Mr Marima said most parents were not teaching their children about sex, thereby exposing them to incorrect and misguided sexual messages from social media.

“Nowadays you realise that teenagers get sexual education from social media and the next thing they want to experiment and expose themselves to diseases,” he said.

“We are saying the school should be a haven for enhanced knowledge on sex education.
“We are working closely with the ministry of education so that teachers are well trained to carefully package messages in a manner suitable for each level of learning.”

According to latest Zimbabwe Demographic Health Survey (ZDHS), nearly one in 10 girls give birth every year.
Teenage pregnancies are still as high as 22 percent, while Government has set a target to reduce them to 12 percent by 2020.