Groups push for sex education curriculum in schools

Education as a Vaccine, (EVA) in conjunction with Girls’ Power Initiative Nigeria, GPI, and the Nigeria Youth Advocates Group, YAG, has declared its intention to advocate for proper sex education across Nigerian schools.

EVA made the pledge  at the Dissemination of Situation Analysis report of the State of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights of Adolescents and Young people in Ondo, Kaduna, and Cross River States held at Abuja on Tuesday.

The Deputy Director, Ondo State Ministry of Youth and Sports, Mrs. Olukemi Okukpe, during an interview, assured that the Ondo state government is making great efforts to implement into law a sex education bill.

“We are currently putting together a bill to do with the adolescent and youth program, which will definitely incorporate the awareness of contraceptives,” she said.

“It will be part of the curriculum in schools, because we already have the National Family Life and HIV Education (FLHE) curriculum in schools.

“A major challenge is the private schools because most private schools are established by ultra-religious proprietors who see sex education as a taboo and not the necessity it is.

“We are working with the Child Protection Officer of the state Ministry of Women Affairs, some of the stakeholders in the state, and more to draft the policy, so we are waiting for it to be passed hopefully soon.”

The sexual health and rights groups shared their findings after conducting analyses into the current state of adolescents and young persons to ascertain the sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) in various communities across the country.

The groups also called for the federal and state governments and also traditional and religious leaders to develop policies and laws to address the SRH needs of adolescents and young persons and allocating proper budgets to the cause.

The analysis also cited various factors affecting SRH for adolescents as being social factors such as religious doctrines, cultural factors such as early child marriages and forced marriages, economic factors such as poverty, and poor political frameworks and policies in the states studied.

According to their findings, 80% of adolescents and young persons in Cross River state, 17% in Kaduna, and 69% in Ondo reported to be engaged in high-risk sexual behaviors.

Also, 32% of women aged 15-49 in Cross River state have experienced some form of Female Genital Mutilation, ranking third highest in the South-South region of Nigeria.

Director, Educational Resource Center, Cross River State Ministry of Education, Barr. Francis Oyije, in an interview affirmed that the state government is aimed at creating awareness for the various sexual epidemics such as female circumcision and sexual violence in the state.

In Kaduna State, which is yet to adopt the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act and yet to pass the bill against Gender-Based Violence, the research showed a correlation between high rates of girls out of school and high rates of early marriage.

A CSO representative in Kaduna observed that ‘the norms and other cultural practices limit the adolescents and young persons from accessing factual information about their sexual reproductive health and rights.’