LIFE SKILLS EDUCATION AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH EDUCATION

LIFE SKILLS EDUCATION AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH EDUCATION Preliminary Findings from the Non-biomedical Interventions into HIV and AIDS Study by Centre for Social Research P.O. Box 278 Zomba Malawi Email: paulkishindo@yahoo.co.uk Fax : (265) 01 524 578 2011 1

LIFE SKILLS AND SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH EDUCATION Goal of Life Skills and Sexual and Reproductive Health Education Throughout the world youths face many physiological, psychological, social and economic challenges. Since the majority of the youth are in the school system, Life Skills Education (LSE) is designed to help them cope with these challenges. The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines life skills as 'abilities for adaptive and positive behaviours that enable individuals to effectively deal with demands and challenges of everyday life (WHO, 1993). The main reason for introducing LSE in Malawi's schools is to enable school going youths to acquire knowledge, values, attitudes and skills that will help them avoid contracting sexually transmitted infections, especially HIV/ AIDS and cope with the challenges of everyday life. The Ministry of Education decided to combine Life Skills Education and Sexual Reproductive Health Education to ensure a more integrated delivery of closely related topics. The ultimate goal is to develop and sustain positive behaviours in the youth through their active involvement in the teaching and learning process (Malawi Institute of Education 2005). LSE was introduced in schools in 2002, originally as a non-examinable subject but made examinable in 2010 as a way of ensuring that it is taken seriously by both learners and teachers. By 2010 all public and private primary and secondary schools were required to teach it as a core and examinable subject. As it is a new subject, teachers had to be trained in its content and methods. Between 2001-2010 some 44,482 primary school teachers were trained (Kasambaa 2010); while 2060 secondary school teachers were trained between 2003 and 2011 (Maganga 2010). 1

While the Ministry of Education offers LSE to in-school youths, it is envisaged that nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), community based organizations (CBOs) and faith based organizations (FBOs) would cater for out-of-school youths under the coordination of the Department of Youth. Challenges faced by youths as they grow up Malawian youths, like other youths, throughout the world face a myriad of challenges which impact on their lives. From interviews with teachers, focus group discussions with members of local communities and students the following were identified: Mounting sexual desires especially on reaching puberty Peer pressure which may push them into engaging in socially unacceptable behaviours such as sexual promiscuity, drugs and alcohol abuse Lack of moral guidance due to loss of parents, or uncaring attitude of those in parental roles Poverty arising from parents not having gainful employment or loss of an income earning parent Child abuse, especially of orphaned children The death of parents has several implications on a child's life, including: loss of financial support and ultimately inability to access the basic necessities of life such as food and clothing; loss of moral guidance which may lead into socially unacceptable behaviours such as sexual promiscuity, drug and alcohol abuse and theft. Orphaned children may be subjected to sexual and other abuses by foster parents and others who assume parental roles. In focus group interviews with learners, overwork and denial of 2

food were identified as the two most common forms of abuse experienced by children not living with their biological parents. What children are taught within their communities Most of the learning takes place within the family with parents taking the leading role in imparting knowledge, values and skills that will enable the children function as full and responsible members of their communities. Uncles and aunts complement the parents. In some rural communities traditional institutions exists to impart this knowledge, values and skills to children at appropriate stages of their lives. Those identified by focus groups are: gule ivamkulu for boys among the Chewa in the central region chinamwali for girls among the Chewa, Yao and Lomwe in the central and southern regions jando for boys among the Yao of Zomba, Salima, Mangochi, Machinga and Mulanje and Muslim Chewa in Nkhotakota thedzo for boys among the Lomwe of Mulanje, Thyolo and Chiradzulu. It was reported that some of the roles of these institutions are being taken over by faith based organizations, especially in urban areas. Some of the most frequently cited organizations that are playing a role in shaping the character of children are: church women's guilds such as Chigwirizano, Mvano and Umanyano of the Church of Central African Presbyterian (CCAP); the Mothers' Union (MU) of the Anglican Church youth organizations such as the Boys' Brigades, the St Agnes Guild of the Anglican Church 3

What children are taught within their communities From the focus groups with members of the community, primary and secondary school learners and interviews with teachers the following emerge as important values, knowledge and skills that are imparted to children in course of their physical and social development: gender based tasks such as home making for girls, and farming and house construction for boys in rural areas respect for elders and those holding positions of authority in the communities body hygiene physiological development and its sexual and reproductive implications dangers of sexual promiscuity fear of God and respect for the moral dictates of religion value of good interpersonal relations Similarities with LSE Learners and teachers were able to identify similarities between LSE and what is taught to children and youths within their families and communities. The most frequently mentioned were: values of maintaining good interpersonal relations and respect for others avoidance of casual sexual relations respect for elders body hygiene physiological development and its reproductive implications 4

The teaching of LSE The ultimate goal of LSE is sustainable positive behavioural change. Its teaching therefore employs a diversity of methods to ensure that the relevant values, knowledge and skills are passed on to learners. Recommended methods are brainstorming, case studies, role play, group discussions and the more traditional 'question and answer'. By 2011 most public primary school teachers and secondary school teachers in both private and public secondary schools had been trained in the content and methods of teaching the subject. However promotions, retirement, resignations and deaths of trained teachers requires that new teachers be trained more or less continually until such a time as the teaching of the subject becomes incorporated into the curriculum of teacher training colleges. While most of the training was done by the Malawi Institute of Education (MIE) at Domasi, other institutions and organizations such as the Ministry of Education, Domasi College of Education (DCE) and World Vision International (WVI) were also reported to have provided training in the subject, with the training period varying between 1-15 days (MIE et al 2005). There was a general agreement among primary and secondary school teachers trained at MIE and the Ministry of Education through Teacher Development Centres (TDCs) that the 1-5 days commonly allocated to the in-service training of LSE teachers is much too little when account is taken of the amount of content and complexity of the methods that the teachers have to get acquainted with. A similar observation is made in the recent evaluation of LSE by the Faculty of Education of the University of Malawi (University of Malawi Faculty of Education, 2010). Although LSE is a core and examinable subject our findings reveal that the subject is not consistently taught in some schools; not taught in others; and taught after classes in still others. A number of reasons were given, viz: 5

some church run schools believed the subject went against the church's moral teaching overcrowded timetable especially in secondary schools, absence of willing teachers to take up what is perceived to be a 'useless' subject that does not feature in university college programmes (see also Maganga 2011). During the study the following secondary schools were recorded as not teaching the subject for various reasons: Salima Secondary School, Luchenza Secondary School and Mzuzu Government Secondary School. Maganga (2010) reported that at Nyungwe Catholic Secondary School it was taught after classes due to timetable congestion. Where a subject is taught after normal classes students are likely to get the impression that it is not important and not worth their serious attention. While most of the primary and secondary school LSE teachers had been trained in its content and methods, there are still others who had not been trained. Kasambara (2010) concedes that standard 6 and 7 LSE teachers had not yet been trained by June 2010. Out of the 20 primary school teachers interviewed five reported teaching without any training but they knew 2-5 others who were not trained within their zone; while three secondary teachers reported teaching without prior training, and knew 1-3 others who had not received appropriate training. The teachers who, despite their lack of training, took up the subject did so because they either felt it was an important subject that had to be taught or were compelled to do so by their head teachers. 6

District Education Managers (DEMs) acknowledge that not all teachers who had been trained in the subject are teaching it. they attribute the situation to the following factors: acute understaffing in some schools compels the shelving of LSE while trained teachers are relocated to more traditional subjects lack of teaching and learning resources makes it difficult for trained teachers to initiate or sustain the subject in their schools the staffing situation on the ground sometimes demands that some teachers with previous training in LSE be deployed to infant classes where the subject is not taught in secondary schools teachers specialize in teaching areas and at the moment there are no specialist LSE teachers; as a result whether the subject is taught depends to a large extent on individual teachers' willingness to teach it death of teachers with previous training The above factors singly or in combination with others, create gaps in the teaching of the subject in public schools. On the other hand, until 2010 private school proprietors had been reluctant to accommodate LSE in their curricula regarding it as an 'unimportant' subject. Out-of-school LSE While in-school youths benefit from a structured learning programme provided by the school system, out-of-school youths rely on interested NGOs, FBOs and CBOs. The Department of Youth is supposed to coordinate LSE activities as part of its mandate for youth development. 7

Our research has revealed that NGOs such as Banja La Mtsogolo (BLM) and Family Planning Association of Malawi (FPAM) provide youth-friendly sexual reproductive health, HIV and AIDS programmes. While Youth Network and Counseling (YONECO), Sub-Saharan Family Enrichment (SAFE), Family Life Aids Aids Education (FLAAE), the Scouts Association, Girl Guides Association and Inter Aide explicitly deal with life skills and youth empowerment, their coverage tends to be limited to a few geographical areas, either because of resource limitations or out of preference. Most of CBOs and FBOs concentrate of orphan care, HIV and AIDS awareness creation and home based care probably because those are areas that are likely to receive donor support. Lack of financial resources was reported to be the single most important factor militating against the operations of grassroots organizations. The net effect of these limitations is that out of school youths do not benefit from LSE as much as their in school counterparts. Challenges of teaching LSE The government has made LSE a core subject to be learned from standard 3 to Form 4 with increasingly degrees of detail and complexity in topics. The teaching of LSE poses a number of challenges largely due to its nature and the diversity of methods that need to be employed to ensure that learners do not just absorb knowledge and information but also translate it into observable and sustainable positive behaviours. Interviews with LSE teachers revealed the following as the most important challenges that they face: inadequacy of textbooks, necessitating the sharing of books some times in a book-student ratio, as high as 1:10 in public secondary schools and the non- 8

availability of supplementary readers. In some cases books are kept in a storeroom and brought to class only for the lesson inadequate numbers of trained LSE teachers in some schools which creates a heavy workload on the available few inadequate time available for classes, especially in the higher classes, considering the fact that the subject requires participatory methods for effective teaching and learning large classes, combined with inadequate class time, which makes group work difficult discomfort felt when teaching topics which require explicit mentioning or discussion of male and female reproductive organs learners' reluctance to discuss their sexual experiences in the presence of the opposite sex the tendency for learners to become unruly and make 'silly' comments during discussion of sexuality and reproduction selective listening and the tendency to 'switch off during some topics complexity of some concepts that need to be explained to learners for example values clarification, moral decadence and globalization especially, in secondary school, the negative attitude of learners who regard it as a 'non-university' subject and therefore not worth learning To mitigate some of these challenges, teachers suggested the following actions: all teachers of LSE should be trained in the content and methods of the subject so that they teach it with confidence ensure that text books, teachers' guides and supplementary readers are available in adequate quantities to ensure easy access to information to both teachers and learners 9

adequate time, for example double periods, should be provided within the timetable to accommodate participatory methods efforts should be made to involve respected members of the community as resource persons so that learners appreciate the link between what is taught in the home and in the school whenever possible the more sensitive or 'taboo' topics in the LSE syllabus should be taught separately to boys and girls to alleviate the discomfort felt by both teachers and learners. On their part learners too experience challenges generally similar to those of their teachers as detailed below: inadequate learning resources, especially, textbooks which force them to rely on what teachers teach during class lessons reticence of some teachers on topics of sex and sexuality; and sometimes total avoidance of them irregular teaching of the subject although it is timetabled especially in secondary schools, the negative attitude of some teachers who regard the subject as 'non-university' and worthless especially in primary schools, the tendency among boys and girls to mock one another during lessons on physiological and sexual development some concepts, for example, value clarification, self awareness and self esteem are difficult to understand the attitude of some parents who demand their children should not attend classes which teach 'obscenities' 10

For the learners the teaching of the subject can be improved if the following are adopted: ensure that all those who are assigned to teach the subject are well conversant with the content of the subject so that they teach it with confidence, and without avoiding any topics teachers assigned to teach the subject are morally upright so that they do not use the subject to ensnare female learners school authorities should ensure that textbooks and supplementary readers are available in adequate quantities and where they can be easily accessed by learners wherever possible health personnel should be invited to serve as guest teachers for the more complicated sexual and reproductive health topics parents should be involved in determining what is taught to avoid violation of cultural taboos Perception of the subject (i) Teachers' perception Overall, teachers regard LSE as a useful subject that needs to be taught in the school system. This positive evaluation is based on the following reasons: it helps improve learners' decision making skills it helps raise learners' self-esteem, especially of female learners brought up in an environment where they are treated as inferior to their male counterparts it promotes better management of emotions it improves learners' abilities to manage conflict 11

(ii) Learners' perceptions As with teachers, learners had a positive view of the subject. The following reasons were the most frequently cited for the positive evaluation: it empowers them to make realistic goals in life it enables them to make informed decisions and overcome peer pressure it helps them cope with stress and anxiety it raises their ability to manage interpersonal conflicts it helps them realize the dangers of premarital sex and early pregnancies it empowers them with knowledge and information to avoid STIs and HIV and AIDS (iii) Community perceptions An important observation made by the field teams is that there is little awareness of what LSE is all about, particularly in rural communities. This could be attributed to a general lack of interest in children's school work displayed by parents, especially where they themselves have little or no education or are preoccupied with the business of earning a living. A major determinant of awareness was the presence in the home of a child of school going age. In most cases parents became aware of the subject by chance: chancing upon an LSE textbook in possession of a school going child; a school going child doing an assignment which involved drawing of male an female reproductive organs; children discussion 'how a child is made'; or a child complaining about being taught 'obscene' things in school. These experiences tended to colour parents' or guardians' attitudes 12

towards the subject. In 18 of the 88 focus groups with community members the attitude was totally negative. They believed that the subject was culturally inappropriate as it introduced young learners to things that they should not know at their age. Frequently used descriptions of the subject were: 'zolaula' and 'zotukivana'. Where parents were aware of the subject, or the subject was explained to them, the general view was that it was a good subject, subject to the following changes: It should be taught in higher classes where learners are older: standard 6 through to form 4. The content should reflect cultural and religious notions of acceptable behavior Impact of LSE The ultimate goal of LSE is behavioural change. In general, education authorities such as District Education Managers (DEMs), head teachers and teachers tend to view the impact of LSE in terms of reduction in pregnancies; decline in school drop out rates; and decline in boy-girl relations. Learners on the other hand have tended to focus on what they as individuals are able to do as a result of exposure to the subject; while community members have tended to focus on the general conduct and attitudes towards older members of the community including learners' own parents. The perceptions of the various categories interviewed in the study are presented in detail below: (i) Teachers' perception Three distinct views emerged from interviews with LSE teachers: the majority view which attributes positive change to the subject; the minority view which attributes both positive and negative outcomes to the subject; and the even smaller minority view which holds that it is difficult to attribute any positive or negative change to LSE in isolation from other factors or interventions outside the confines of the school. 13

The majority of the LSE teachers advance the following as positive impacts of LSE in their schools: decline in pregnancies reduction in the number of learners dropping out of school reduction in boy-girl relationships increased self-esteem Teachers who claim the subject has had both positive and negative impacts argue that while students' self esteem and assertiveness have increased and interrelationships within the school have improved the picture is different outside the confines of the school: learners have become increasingly disrespectful of their 'uneducated' and 'backward' parents apparently perpetuated myths about sexuality and reproduction; are more prone to sexual experimentation; and are also prone to use obscene language, especially wanton mentioning of reproductive organs. If LSE had indeed been effective in reducing pregnancies the positive trends would have been captured in the available education statistics. The 2006-2009 education statistics point to a rising rather than declining trend in pregnancy statistics in both primary and secondary schools as shown in the tables below: Table V. Number of Girls Leaving Due to Pregnancy Number of Girls Dropping out of School Due to Pregnancy Primary Secondary 2006 3501 1704 14

2007 3550 1591 2008 3736 1846 2009 5009 1922 There is also an increasing trend of girls leaving school to get married. Table 2: Number of Girls Dropping out Due to Marriage Number of Girls Dropping out of School Due to Marriage Primary Secondary 2006 8280 1437 2007 8340 1392 2008 8438 1399 2009 10057 1778 Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Education Statistics, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 (ii) Learners' perception Overall, the learners' perception of the impact of the subject was positive. There was no difference in the general perception between primary and secondary school learners. According to the students, exposure to LSE has led to the following positive impacts: a reduction conflicts a decline in pregnancies an increase in respect for school authorities a reduction in vandalism 15

(iii) Community members' perception The common view in focus groups that were aware of the subject was that life skills had the potential to reinforce the values and skills for responsible adulthood that are imparted to children by parents and others in parental roles in the community. However, in its current form it is destructive as it exposes young children to information that is not appropriate. Feelings against LSE were generally stronger in female that male focus groups. The following were identified as negative consequences of exposure to LSE: increased sexual experimentation as learners want to experience what their elders feel rejection of parental advice on sexual responsibility as they tend to regard it as old fashioned increased curiosity among young children about what their parents do in the privacy of their bedrooms increased tendency for young learners to ask awkward questions about sex and child birth which are taboo subjects Concluding remarks In general teachers and learners have positive views of the subject as it empowers learners to make informed choices which have positive impacts on their lives. However, challenges remain on the part of teachers regarding availability of teaching resources especially in the secondary schools; inadequacy of trained staff; and the discomfort over discussion of sexual matters which are traditionally regarded as taboo. Students on the other hand have to contend with inter alia inadequate textbooks and non-existent supplementary readers; irregular classes and complex concepts which are often inadequately explained. On the other hand, parents and others in parental roles have to contend with the idea that all the well preserved myths and instructions are

subject to scrutiny and rejection by their school going children. In the final analysis statements on the impact of LSE appear to be based on anecdotal evidence rather than hard facts; but even on the basis of anecdotal evidence the impact of LSE is said to be both positive and negative. While in-school boys and girls benefit from a structured programme of LSE, their outof-school counterparts are inadequately catered for. NGOs, FBOs and CBOs have tended to focus more on orphan care and support, HIV and AIDS awareness creation and promotion of voluntary HIV testing. In this scenario their access to useful knowledge and skills is limited. 17

References Kasambara, J (2010) Facts and Figures on Life Skills and Sexual and Reproductive Health Education: A Paper Presented for Sudan Delegation. Malawi Institute of Education, Domasi Maganga, J (2010) Monitoring the Teaching of Life Skills in Secondary Schools in Malawi. Malawi Institute of Education, Domasi Maganga, J (2011) Report on the Orientation of Female Secondary School Teachers to Life Skills/Sexual and Reproductive Health Education. Malawi Institute of Education, Domasi MIE (2005) Life Skills and Sexual Reproductive Health Education. Paper presented to Heads of Secondary Schools. Malawi Institute of Education, Domasi MIE, SIDA and UNFPA (2005) Life Skills and Sexual Reproductive Health Education for Primary and Secondary Schools. Findings from a Baseline Survey Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (2006) Education Statistics 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009 University of Malawi Faculty of Education (2010) Assessment of Life Skills Education in Malawi Chancellor College, Zomba WHO (1993) Global AIDS News, No. 4, Geneva 18