Addressing teenage pregnancy

and sexual abuse in schools

Hleki Mabunda
Dept of Basic Education
ADDRESSING SEXUAL HARASSMENT AND SEXUAL
VIOLENCE IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS
 FOCUS: promoting clear understanding of the law
against sexual harassment and sexual violence in public
schools. Awareness raising initiatives include:
– Popularizing Guidelines for Prevention and Management of Sexual
Violence and Harassment in Public Schools (targeted at teachers and
school management)
– Popularizing the Speak Out Handbook (a learner focused guidebook for
identifying, preventing and reporting sexual abuse)
Future plans include:
- Training of teachers to identify and appropriately respond to abuse and
distressed children
– A focus on parental involvement on dealing with sexual abuse at schools
and communities
– Conducting research on Sexual Violence and harassment in schools
 PART 2

TOWARDS A COMPREHENSIVE STRATEGY

FOR PREVENTING AND MANAGING
TEENAGE PREGNANCY IN SA (WITH
EMPHASIS ON SCHOOL GOING LEARNERS)
 BACKGROUND

• The Department commissioned a study in 2008:

to review and critically analyze data with focus
on learner pregnancy
• The research report – “Teenage pregnancy in
SA- with specific focus on school going learners”
was released at a National seminar on teenage
pregnancy – August 28 2009
 RESEARCH FINDINGS IN BRIEF

• That there is a decline in teenage fertility;

• That remaining in the education system is a strong factor
in preventing teenagers from falling pregnant. Thereby
necessitating that we spare no effort in keeping young
people at school, by contributing to fighting poverty,
removing economic barriers to learning .– and to
reintegrating drop out learners back into the schools
system as soon as possible;
• That learner pregnancies are concentrated in Kwazulu-
Natal, Eastern Cape as well as Limpopo provinces;
thereby necessitating concerted efforts in these
provinces;
 RESEARCH FINDINGS IN BRIEF

• That learner pregnancies are more concentrated in

schools located in poor neighbourhoods, schools that are
under-resourced; and schools with a significant age
differential / age mixing between learners
• That poor school performance, regular absenteeism,
history of child sexual or physical abuse are strong risk
factors to watch out for; and
• That there are cohorts of learners who remain
uninformed and ill – informed about their sexuality, and
the dangers of engaging in early and unprotected sexual
activities
 POST RESEARCH PROCESS

• Developing a comprehensive strategy

preventing and managing teenage pregnancy in
SA (with emphasis on school going learners)
- Rights based
- Multi–sectoral and Inter–departmental
- This includeD setting up an inter-dept task
team or a cluster sub-commitee (Health; Basic
Education; Social Development; Sports and
Recreation; Women, Youth, Children and
Persons with Disability; and the NYDA)
 Consultations
• Several inter-provincial committees (gender,
race and values, school safety)
• Council of Education Ministers
• Portfolio Committee for Education
• National seminar (national and provincial
departments, NGO’s, school principals, learners,
teacher unions, schools governing body
associations, etc)
• The Social Protection and Community
Development Cluster
• Inter departmental forum, and SANAC PIC
 Elements of the strategy: Prevention
Cont..
• Keeping young people in school
- Basic Education - no fee schools, school nutrition
programme, school safety, sexual harassment and
sexual violence
- Health - access to quality basic health care services,
youth friendly clinics, accessible contraceptives
- Social Development – social grants, support to orphaned
children
- Higher Education - accessible higher and further
education opportunities for learners post matric (counter
the chances for learners being vulnerable to early
pregnancy)
 Elements of the strategy: Prevention
Cont..
• Improving resourcing in schools
- learner pregnancies are more concentrated in
schools located in poor neighbourhoods,
schools that are under-resourced (Kwazulu-
Natal, Eastern Cape, Limpopo)
- strengthen efforts to provide essential resources
to public schools. This includes necessary
infrastructure (classrooms, labs, water,
sanitation), text books, availability of teachers for
all subjects, other resources
- Give priority to highly affected provinces
 Elements of the strategy: Prevention
Cont..
Improving access to sexuality education and awareness
• there are cohorts of learners who remain uninformed and ill –
informed about their sexuality, and the dangers of engaging
in early and unprotected sexual activities
- implement age appropriate sexuality education programmes
through the life skills programme
- parents need to take a much more active role in educating
their children about their sexuality
- maximize opportunities to utilize mass media campaigns to
educate learners of their sexuality and dangers of teen
pregnancy
- active involvement of other key stakeholders to leverage on
their strengths and role in building society. These include the
churches and traditional leaders, civil society organizations,
etc
 Elements of the strategy: Prevention
Cont..
• Develop and implement an early warning system
- research states that poor school performance, regular
absenteeism, and history of child sexual or physical
abuse are strong risk factors to watch out for in order to
preempt teenage pregnancy
- this necessitates the need for development of an early
warning system; through which educators and school
principals can use to be able to identify children at risk –
and be able to attend to through providing support
resident in the school system, as well as referring them
to other institutions of support
 Elements of the strategy: Prevention
Cont..
• Resuscitate mobile clinic and social worker
occasional visits to public schools
- to conduct health screenings, educational programmes
and sharing information on sexuality and other health
related subjects
- health officials would assist the schools to be able to
determine learners that are pregnant
- visits by social workers would respond to the needs of
vulnerable learners, orphans, those who have a history
of sexual and physical abuse (guard against dropout)
 Elements of the strategy: Prevention
Cont..
• Involvement of teachers and teacher unions
in preventing teenage pregnancy in public
schools
- There is concern that some educators engage in sexual
relationships with learners
- partnership with teacher unions and associations, to
engage in a robust programme to raise awareness
among educators of the implications of these acts
- effective management of cases of sexual harassment
and sexual violence in schools
 Elements of the strategy: Prevention
Cont..
• Participation in extra curricula activities
- extension of school hours
- sport, and cultural activities (facilities, support)
- improving the peer education programme
- school clubs (GEM BEM, soul budyz, etc) to
empower young people
• Advocacy and communication
– ensuring that all understand policy, importance of
protecting vulnerable learners and the response to
teen pregnancy which is multi-faceted
Elements of the strategy: Management
and support
• reintegrating drop out learners (due to pregnancy and
child birth) back into the schools system as soon as
possible (second chance opportunities)
• clearly defined catch-up programmes
• providing proper support to pregnant learners to ensure
that they receive the necessary support during
pregnancy
• provision of support to teenage mothers in caring for the
children
• implementation some form of training on parenting,
coupled with sexuality training
Policy and Administrative issues
• seamless policy on managing teenage
pregnancy in schools is a necessity to ensure
uniformity in a manner that schools respond to
the situation is necessary (currently
developing Ministerial Regulation on
managing learner pregnancy)
• improving referral and support systems by
strengthening links between schools and local
health and social services
 END

THANK YOU