Teachers\' Attitude is not an impediment to Adolescent Sexuality Education in Enugu, Nigeria

Abstract

Studies have shown that adolescents in Nigeria have poor knowledge health issues and that there was a need to provide them with correct broad-based information on reproductive as part of a nationally-approved school curriculum 1,2,3 . However, the non-application of the curriculum on sexuality education in many schools in Nigeria has been blamed on a negative attitude of teachers 4.
This study was undertaken to determine the attitude of secondary school teachers in Enugu, South-Eastern Nigeria, to adolescent sexuality education and to determine whether this depends on their socio-demographic characteristics.
A cross-sectional study of the attitude of teachers to adolescent sexuality education was done.
A total of 249 teachers were studied. Their mean age was 38.7years ±8.08SD. Two hundred and ten teachers (84%) were females. Two hundred and twenty-four teachers (90%) were married and 168(67.5%) were of Roman Catholic Faith. The awareness of reproductive health activities was high. There was a high proportion of respondents who approved of sexuality education for adolescents (77.5%) and an equally high proportion who believed that it was important (89%). One hundred and ninety- eight (79%) of the respondents were willing to teach sexuality education. The attitude to sexuality education was independent of religion, sex or marital status (p>0.05).
It was concluded that secondary school teachers in Enugu urban were willing to offer sexuality education to adolescents under their care irrespective of their religion, sex or marital status. It is therefore, recommended that teachers in Enugu be given the necessary special training in the teaching of sexuality education now and that sexuality education be officially incorporated into the school curriculum in Enugu, preferably as part of moral studies.


African Journal of Reproductive Health Vol. 10 (1) 2006: pp. 81-90