Address bottlenecks in CSE implementation

EFFECTIVE sexuality education is a vital part of HIV prevention and a critical tool to achieving universal access targets for reproductive health and HIV prevention, treatment, care and support.

Despite the introduction of Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) in a bid to equip adolescents with cognitive, emotional, physical, and social aspects of sexuality, Zambia still lags behind in implementing the CSE framework.

The development has culminated in about 15,000 girls falling pregnant and subsequently dropping out of school while an estimated 26,000 new HIV infections in 2019 among women aged 15 years and above was recorded, as indicated in the latest Zambia Demographic Health Survey (ZDHS).

This is further amplified by the Eastern province, which alone recorded over 12,000 teenage pregnancies in the first half of 2021. The provincial administration reported that of these cases, 400 were girls below the age of 15 while the rest were between 15 and 19 years old.

With these glaring statistics, Deputy Government Chief Whip Princess Kasune says Members of Parliament, who are key stakeholders in the implementation of CSE need capacity building for them to appreciate the importance of safeguarding the life of a girl child in their respective constituencies.

“In the current Parliament, we have members who are coming for the first time and have no idea about the importance of CSE. We need to bring these critical stakeholders on board and build capacity in them to champion the cause. Ending child marriage and teenage pregnancy requires the involvement of all stakeholders,” she says.

Ms Kasune, who is also Keembe Parliamentarian, has also called on Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to work with MPs as agents of change to the under-served communities in their respective constituencies.

And the National Action for Quality Education (NAQEZ) executive director Aaron Chansa has implored the ‘New Dawn’ Government to address the existing bottlenecks in the implementation of CSE.

“My appeal to the Minister of Education Douglas Siakalima and his Permanent Secretaries it to attend to the challenges that are hindering the implementation of CSE and ensure that it receives the highest premium it deserves,” he says.

CSE is a curriculum-based process of teaching and learning that is aimed at equipping children and young people with age appropriate knowledge, skills, attitudes and values that will empower them to realise their health, well-being and dignity.

It also helps adolescents consider how their choices affect their own well-being and that of others; and understand and ensure the protection of their rights throughout their lives.

The Curriculum Development Centre (CDC) honed the CSE framework in a way that ensures the content is delivered to children according to their grades and ages from grades one to 12, and is integrated in various subjects like Religious Education, Home Economics, Integrated Science and Civic Education.

Mr Chansa says the purpose of introducing CSE is bound to be defeated if the various pitfalls identified in the implementation of the framework are not rectified.

He says, “first of all, CSE has not received a lot of financial support. When you look at the national budget from 2014 upto now, insignificant funds have been allocated to CSE activities sometimes zero amounts of money are allocated towards CSE.”

“This makes it very difficult for the Ministry of Education to buy books for learning and teaching, it makes it very difficult for the Ministry to actually build capacity in teachers and school managers and almost impossible to mount serious national campaigns in support of CSE.”

Mr Chansa has further pointed out that a lack of the implementation strategy and a monitoring and evaluation system by the Ministry of Education, have negative impact on the execution of CSE.

He says there is need for the Government to set benchmarks and put in place a monitoring and Evaluation system to track the progress made in the implementation of CSE.

The NAQEZ boss has proposed the need to strengthen guidance and counseling services in schools by having teachers strictly dedicated to implementing the guidelines contained in the guidance and counseling manual.

On the policy for the out-of-school youths that was formulated by the Ministry of Youth and Sport in 2015, Mr Chansa says, “the ministry did not put in place any mechanism to implement it, therefore, it needs to be popularised.”

Meanwhile, Centre for Reproductive Health and Education (CRHE) executive director Amos Mwale says there is urgent need to arrest the rising numbers of adolescents being infected with HIV.

CRHE executive director Amos Mwale said in an interview that the 260 weekly infections by adolescents who mostly were alarming.

Mr Mwale says this is a sign that young people were engaging in unprotected sex which should be curbed as soon as possible and ensure that the new infections on HIV reduce as well as pregnancies amongst adolescents.

"If we have to reduce the number of HIV infections and teenage pregnancies, we need to do alot and alot means every stakeholder needs to get involved," he says

He says parents should also start discussing sexual issues with their children or else the numbers of infections and teen pregnancies would continue going up.

Mr Mwale observes that losing 16,000 girl children through dropping out of school because of pregnancies was a draw back to having an educated nation.

" When you look at the statistics at the Ministry of Education which they are sharing with stakeholders including the public, they are in tandem with reports we are getting from the Ministry of Health, National Aids Council (NAC) and UNAIDS that the numbers of infections on HIV are high, "he adds.

AUTHOR: MOSES CHIMFWEMBE