Families are Nations Founder and President Judith Mwila has advised members of the public to understand what is contained in the curriculum of comprehensive sexuality education – CSE before deeming it inappropriate.
Mwila said the curriculum is necessary and has relevant topics that need to be discussed in order for young people to know about their sexuality and sex education especially because we are living in times where information is easily accessible online.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Zambian Business Times – ZBT, Mwila said the only thing that needs to be observed is age appropriacy ensuring that the right information is given to the right age groups.
She stated that there is nothing outside of Zambia’s teaching practice in the comprehensive sexuality education curriculum, therefore individuals should take time to read and understand before dismissing it.
“The only thing we need to do is determine in what ways we give the information because as Africans we have a different way of explaining certain things to different age groups, she said”.
She added that people should not be ignorant about the curriculum and only question when to teach what and to whom, as this information should be given to our learners from official sources, otherwise there is nothing wrong with providing comprehensive sexuality education in schools.
Mwila has urged the individuals spearheading comprehensive sexuality education to allow and encourage people to discuss it more so that they can understand it. Sexuality is part of adult life and children need to given vetted and good quality information so that they take the right decisions as they approach adulthood.
Most learners in Zambia have no official source to learn sexual education and end up getting wrong information from peers and friends who in most instances are also ignorant. With the advent of technology, especially mobile internet, most learners get exposed to sexual content and have no one to ask to get formal and approved information on best practices.
More over, most of the cultural practices in Zambia does not give a platform for parents or guardians to discuss sexual education with their children and especially teenagers who urgently need this information, so children or teenagers end up with limited or become miss informed on sexual education.
