16 September 2003
Maputo — Mozambique's Education Ministry is to introduce on the new school curriculum for the 2004 academic year sexuality, and matters related with sexual and reproductive health, as one of the ways to bring down the rate of sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies in the country's secondary schools.
According to the Ministry's national director for basic education, Jafete Mabote, these measures are aimed to persuade school students to follow the rules for the prevention of those problems. He added that the aim is to explain to the students that sexual diseases and unwanted pregnancies can be easily avoided.
"With the inclusion of STDs and preganacies on the curriculum, the students will be aware of the care they must have with their own health", said Mabote to AIM during a four day seminar on "School health programmes for adolescents", which started on Tuesday in Maputo. The educational authorities are concerned over this issue because there has been an increasing numbers of STDs, cases of AIDS and unwanted pregnancies in the country's educational institutions. One of the results has been a worsening of the drop out rate.
The education and health ministries set up a joint programme in 1996, aimed at following the sexual and reproductive behaviour of students in basic education. So far, this pilot programme covers Maputo, and the central provinces of Manica and Sofala. The seminar is also aimed at assessing the activities carried out by both institutions over the last seven years of programme implementation, and to draw up new strategies aimed at strengthening the programmes over the coming period. "The challenge is to be involved in matters related to the health of young people, mainly teenagers who still do not have enough information about the precautions they must take", said Mabote.
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