SAPLER Pioneers (peer-educators) sexuality-education in schools programme (3-monthly report 31st Jul 98)

Activities conducted

  1. Formal lessons in sexuality education in schools. Most Pioneers succeeded in providing all or nearly all classes in their school with a sexuality-education lesson every week as planned (but with two important exceptions). All Pioneers were well received by pupils and teachers, enjoyed their work and stimulated discussion by the pupils themselves about the dangers, opportunities and choices that they face as maturing individuals. (Some in-experienced Pioneers initially worked together with an experienced Pioneer in a school for a while, before moving to their own school).

    2. Nine schools were taught by nine Pioneers, who also have a manager and a secretary. The manager, Mr. Edward Mabunda, also taught part of the time and will have a part-time teaching post for the second part of the year. At the suggestion of Mrs. Marumo, the manager for Odi District, Pioneers who had completed two full terms teaching were moved to new schools. Six of the nine Pioneers have thus moved to new schools this term, and with a part-time pioneer post by the manager, 16 schools will have been served by the programme by the end of the year, rather than the original 11 envisaged in the contract.

    Also at Mrs. Marumo’s suggestion, these new postings were not in the Winterveldt South area, which tends to attract more than its fair share of NGO attention. Five of the schools are in the Klipgat area, whilst one is in the neglected, semi-rural Winterveldt North Area.

  2. Private consultation. Individual pupils consulted Pioneers about personal problems. Often, referral to a clinic or social worker followed.
  3. A few public functions such as workshops were held and the safe sex message delivered at appropriate events, particularly by Mr Mabunda. Liaison with other organisations involved in safe sex was maintained. Attempts to reach out-of-school youth through football clubs are underway.
  4. An investigation of the situation at school served last year, Abel Motshwane, was conducted.

Achievements

  1. Reduction of teen pregnancy (and by implication HIV incidence). As specified in the contract, it was decided to measure teenage pregnancy as a proxy for AIDS-aware safe sex behaviour. Direct measurement of HIV infection is a controversial issue and beyond the capacity of SAPLER. However, measuring teen pregnancy is relatively easy. On this basis, the annual pregnancy rate appears to be 2.0% (26 pregnancies in 6 months amongst an estimated 2624 girls. Statistics are incomplete for three schools with an estimated 1438 girls).

    2. Whilst this is not satisfactory, it seems to be much better than the typical rate for the area. The Population Reference Bureau (PRB) estimates that in South Africa as a whole, 11% of women aged 15-19 give birth each year. The Amref survey of Winterveldt in October 1997 found 27% of females aged 12 to 19 were pregnant or mothers. Of these, only 6.7% were less than 15 years old. Assuming a vertical age profile, and an even sampling rate across age, this gives a figure of 41% of women aged 15-19 who are pregnant or mothers, which seems to support the PRB figure of 11% annually. We will undertake data collection of pregnancies and other dropouts from class teachers in schools who do not have a Pioneer, so as to have a direct basis for comparison for the next report.

  2. Substantial increase in sexuality education. About 7500 pupils were taught sexuality education most weeks, for an estimated average of 6000 (5954) pupils per week of the school term, by a young person from the community, who elicited enthusiastic discussion that is typically not shared with guidance teachers. By the end of the year, approximately 13000 pupils will have had 2 terms of such sexuality education, at a cost to NWP of approximately R6 per pupil. Our anecdotal evidence suggests only a fraction of this sexuality education would have been given by the guidance teacher, who has exam subjects to teach, and much less effectively.

Problems experienced

  1. Back-up must be provided at schools after a Pioneer moves to another school. A very good record at Abel Motshuane High School in 1997, with almost no pregnancies, was followed in 1998 by an estimated 10 – 20 pregnancies.

    2. Action: We are currently working on a policy to maintain safe sex behaviour at old schools.

  2. Pregnancy statistics are not independently collected or verified. At present, our Pioneers themselves obtain this information from each class teacher.

    3. Action: We respectfully request that the Education Department institute formal reporting of each school dropout, and report these data directly to your office, as a proxy for AIDS awareness, and as a measure in its own right, as teen pregnancy is also a serious problem.

  3. No independent evaluation or monitoring of the effectiveness of Pioneers is done, although the direction of the guidance teacher seems to be usually sound. Action: We respectfully suggest that evaluation of Pioneers and other NGO interventions at schools to be incorporated into the school inspection system.
  4. Reproductive Health Services should ideally be provided at schools. Condoms, contraceptive injections, the morning after pill and STD referrals can be much more effectively provided by nursing sisters visiting schools.

    5. Action: Sapler is currently engaged in redeveloping an existing CBO (St Peters Mandlenkosi Family Health Programme), which may be able to use community health workers working under the direction of a nurse, and may be able to provide school support.

  5. No lesson time available. Some schools could not accommodate our wish to have every, or nearly every, class taught at least once a week, so we could not post a Pioneer there.
  6. Under-utilization of Pioneers. Letlolo Middle School initially made good use of a pair of Pioneers, but then restricted the deployment of the remaining Pioneer, who then became discouraged. The situation was rectified. Lesolang High School did not allow our experienced Pioneer to teach the standard 10’s, with the result that 7 pregnancies occurred amongst the Std 10’s, whilst only one occurred in the all the other classes.

    7. Action: Sapler requests new schools to deploy Pioneers at all or nearly all classes every week.

  7. Loss of teaching time by Sapler. Sapler was slow to install Pioneers at the beginning of the year, with further delays to re-arrange timetables to accommodate us. This situation was repeated when our plans to move to new schools were delayed by the shooting of our manager, Mr Mabunda, a week before the end of last term. Then he suffered a very sad personal loss just before the beginning of this term.

    8. Action: We intend to build much bigger time margins to our plans in future. We are also seeking funding for a vehicle to be shared with St Peters Mandlenkosi Family Health Programme.

  8. Loss of teaching time by schools. Many teaching days are lost to school organisation at the beginning of term, exams at the end of term, and various school functions during the term. In addition, the school day ends early and school holidays are long. Our Pioneers therefore are under-employed and need additional work.

    9. Action: With a computer installed at the Winterveldt office, we intend to have better planning, communication and reporting done by the Pioneers themselves, who will pick up valuable skills. We would like the Education department to provide incentives to schools to maximise lesson time and lessons delivered.

    We will provide detailed reporting on teaching days in our next report.

  9. Lack of Condoms. It is often difficult to always supply condoms to schools.

Action: We need better planning with Odi Hospital. Also, we promote delay of sexual activity, faithfulness and contraceptive injections in preference to condoms. We will provide statistics of condom distribution in our next report.

Items of expenditure to date.

Our contract with the NWP programme specified that salaries would be paid from NWP funding (R81000), whilst operating costs (R21 0000) would be sought from the private sector. Recently, SA Breweries donated R21000 for operating costs.

Salaries

Our 7 new pioneers and secretary were paid a stipend of R200 per month until NWP funding was announced and received (24th April), when they were back-paid for February and March.

With minor adjustments (one Pioneer left and one was recruited), salaries have been paid each month since February as follows:

Senior Manager: R2000 (R1100 in Feb and March)

Junior Manager: R1100

Senior Pioneer: R1100

7 Pioneers 7* R500: R3500

Secretary: R500

Total: R8200 * 6 - 1800= R47200

4 Months remaining:

August – November 1998 = 4 * 8200= R32800

The new schools are distant:

Travel Allowance (5* 130 + 150) * 4= R3200

Total R83200

The shortfall of R83200 - R81000 of R2200 will probably be covered by the interest earned or carried by SAPLER. Any surplus will be paid as a bonus to the Pioneers at the end of November.

Operating Costs (funded by SA Breweries)

Approximate costs incurred so far are:

UNESCO Teacher and student guides for training course R1450

PPASA Life Skills and Hiv/Aids Education manuals R925

PPASA Responsible Teenage Sexuality books R700

Stationery: R1000

Computer: R9500

Rent St Peters: R1400

Total R14975

Tables Appended: Pregnancy rates and personnel details

[ Home ] [ Evaluation ] [ Proposal ] [ Pioneers July 98 ] [ Pioneers October 98 ] [ Odi Report Jan-Jun99 ]