Teaching Sexuality Education in Primary Schools in Tanzania: Challenges and Implications

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effectiveness of school based sexuality education in promoting knowledge and skills relating to the prevention of pregnancy and HIV and AIDS. The rationale was that understanding how teachers and pupils experience sexuality education in schools could perhaps contribute to better ways of mitigating HIV/AIDS and pregnancies. In this regard, the study  focused on exploring the way in which sexuality education is provided in primary schools, explore teachers’ training on sexuality education provision, pupils’ source of sexuality education knowledge and challenges that affect the provision of  sexuality education. The study used mixed method design, where by both quantitative and qualitative approaches were utilized. The study population was drawn from a total of 120 teachers and 204 pupils. Data collection methods included, questionnaires and interviews. The research findings shows although sexuality education seem to be intergrated in subjects, pupils’ source of sexuality knowledge seem to be not from schools teaching and learning rather other sources out of schools. On the other hand there was evidence of inadequate training for teachers on how to teach and handle sexuality classes in primary schools. Furthermore pupils faces difficulties in learning sexualit topics due to different factors such as cultural barrier, religious beliefs and personal background, teachers with relevant teaching skills and learning facilities. The study recommend several approaches to improve sexuality education in schools which include training for teachers to improve the content and methodology for teaching sexuality education, providing teaching and learning facilities relevant for improving sexuality education teaching. It is concluded that an open discussions on sexuality education among parents, pupils, religious leaders and policy makers should be carried out so as to develop a guideline on what should be included in the syllabus for sexuality education topics and how the contents should be taught. The study therefore calls for other researchers to investigate the application of sexuality knowledge and skills to pupils in protecting them from sexual risks.