Abstention
Several learners described the pioneer as presenting abstention as one, or the best, among a range of other possibilities:
| a44g "To be faithful use a condom but he said the best prevention for STDs including AIDS is abstenence" |
| a28b "About abstaining, being honest and taking precautionary measures before having sex" |
| g6b "She said up-stay from sex it’s the right thing to do. Unless use condoms" |
| g32g "She taught us to abstain from sex, not to fall in this trap called teenage pregnancy" |
Many others presented the pioneer as explaining the rationale for abstaining from sex in terms of learners’ relative immaturity:
| c29b "She taught us to be patient until we get to a stage whereby we see that we know more about life it self" |
| g20b "She told us to not have sex at all until the time for you has come when you have get married" |
| g18g "She guide us not to have sex because we are still young. She told us that sex is forever we could finish school and it is going to be there" |
| h26g "is telling us don’t you have sex if you are a young child" |
| i13g "She always warned us about sex that we are too young to have sex" |
| m19g "The way he explained that to have sex at an early age can come with many mistakes that you will regret at the end that u did it" |
| m6g "He encouraged us not to start having sex before marraige" |
A few learners appear to have received the abstention message as a pure moral imperative, with no further need for justification.
| h10b "guiding the learners to stay far away from sex" |
| i20g "Do not have sex" |
That more discussion about the pros and cons of abstention is needed is indicated by this question from one learner:
m20g "That is true that if you do not have sex you will condam your body. Lots of people said that & I don’t believe them. I just want to know!"
Masturbation can be seen as a form of abstention, at least in the sense that it is an alternative to more risky behaviours, and a few learners were interested in knowing more about it. This interest appears mainly to have been triggered by items in the questionnaire dealing with masturbation (skomola) for boys, but not mentioning the possibility that girls could also masturbate:
| h6b "I want to know about skomola" |
| g17g "I just want her to tell us about why we girls not have to do mustubetion. Please correct me if my spelling is wrong" |
| g9g "If you are a girl do you have to masturbate" |
| Recommendation Sapler should collect anecdotal information from learners and pioneers on why learners in the area are motivated to start engaging in sexual activities and then use these in pioneers’ teaching. |
Most commonly, learners remembered pioneers as justifying abstention in terms of the right to say no:
| c34g "When they told us that if ever we don’t want to have sex we have a right to say no" |
| f44b "not to be afraid to say no to sex" |
| i47g "to say no if you don’t want sex" |
A couple of learners linked the idea of saying no to situations of overt or covert coercion:
| f16g "She said you must not have sex with your boyfriend because of you want to show him how much you love him. But you can still show him without having sex. And she told us that AIDS is a dangerous disease" |
| f18g "Don’t let anyone to force you to have sex. If you have sex use a condom" |
A fair number of learners also expressed a desire to learn more about forced sex and rape:
| a16g "About raped people and what must you do after you were raped" |
| a34g "Prevention of rape" |
| c35b "Abuse Rape" |
| g13g "What to do when somebody forced to have sex" |
| g21g "About rape" |
Some learners, particularly from school M, presented resisting coercion as part of a broader theme of personal self-esteem:
| b8b "I liked that he shown the way and not be stupid about my self" |
| f40g "that no one can tell me what to do and what not to do about my life. The choice is myne and I have to do the things I like in my own time not being forced by anyone else" |
| m4b "He told us to fill good and have pride in our lifes" |
| m36b "He taught us to be positive and confident. We have to be ourselves, not what another person wishes us to be" |
| m24b "About being myself" |