Ugandan Government intoduces sex education in schools

Officials from the Ministry of Education
have told media they have started carrying
out adolescent health and sexuality
education in schools to equip students with
information to “manage themselves”.
This development comes less than a month
since Christian founded schools called for
changes in this new policy, saying Church
views were “substantially ignored.”
In June, clergy under their umbrella
organization, The Uganda Episcopal
Conference (UEC) vowed not to adopt this
curriculum in Christian schools until it is
revised again by government.
Speaking on behalf of UEC, John Baptist
Odama, the Archbishop of Gulu said the
Church is not against sex education, and
that despite having made suggestions to
developing the curriculum, in the final
edition of the document, their views were
rejected.
He added that there is no guarantee that
school teachers are prepared and able to
teach such “delicate and emotionally
charged topics “in a balanced and proper
way.
“Contrary to what many people think, the
Church is in favour of a positive, age
appropriate, culturally and religious sex
education which upholds moral and
Christian values because this task is a
shared responsibility of the family, church
and state through schools but
unfortunately, in the published edition of
the document, the contributions of the
catholic experts have been substantially
ignored,” read part of the UEC statement
signed by the chairperson, John Baptist
Odama.
Bishop Odama added that while the
National Sexuality Education Framework
contains some valid ideas and guidelines, it
fails to answer some crucial questions such
as the vital role of the family especially in
the early ages and why children in the early
years between 3 to 5 and those in lower
primary (P1 to P4) are exposed to content
and life skills which are not appropriate for
their ages.

In an interview with the Daily Monitor at the
inaugural sex education session at Kololo
Senior Secondary School on Friday, Mr
Henry Ssemakula, the officer-in-charge of
counseling and guidance at the Ministry of
Education, said some of the core objectives
of introducing sexuality education in
schools is to show the students how habits
such as drug and alcohol abuse can lead to
school dropout, early pregnancies,
prostitution and acquiring HIV/Aids.
Ssemakula explained that henceforth the
Uganda Health Marketing Group (UHMG) is
coordinating the activities and they are
partnering with World Health Organisation
(WHO), United Nations Fund for Population
(UNDP) and Unicef.
“UHMG came up with the concept which the
Ministry of Education approved and
wherever they go, they are required to go
with someone from the ministry to ensure
that they are teaching what is contained
within the framework of sexuality
education,” he told the news outlet.
The Ministry of Health claimed the policy
document is sensitive to all social aspects
and age appropriate therefore, “it was not
bound to attract opposition from religious,
cultural and political institutions because it
had been drafted over a period of two years,
through consultations with all relevant
stakeholders.”