Health activists condemn government ban on sexuality education
Straight Talk Foundation Training and Development Manager Godfrey Walakira (L) chatting with Rev. Canon Sam Ruteikaraand (C) former Butaleja MP Jacob Wangolo (R) during the 3rd Inter-Generational Dialogue on the contagious sexuality education. PHOTO BY ABUBAKER LUBOWA
KAMPALA. Health activists have condemned government on banning sexuality education in schools and saying the decision was hurriedly made.
Maj Rubaramira Ruranga, a commissioner for Aids Information Centre, has described the government decree on sexuality education made on Thursday as disastrous to the efforts towards the fight against HIV/AIDs, Hepatitis B and early pregnancy.
“I would like to tell government that making laws trying to stop children from learning who they are is creating a disaster. The idea of banning sexuality education is a bad one and disastrous,” Maj Ruranga said on Saturday.
He made the remarks at during Reach A Hand Uganda’s (RAHU) annual intergenerational dialogue on Sexuality and Reproduction Health Rights (SRH) in Kampala. The dialogue attracted over 3,000 youths and students across the country who also expressed dissatisfaction against the banning of sexuality education in schools.
Mr Collins Mbulakyalo, Head boy of Bishop Cyprian Kihangire Secondary School, said several of his colleagues always ask questions regarding SRH which need immediate answers.
“I think banning sexuality education is not good. Personally, I have always experienced several body changes that could make me think negatively. I have been helped by teachers with knowledge on sexuality education,” Mr Mbulakyalo said.
Participants
Mr Humphrey Nabimanya, RAHU Founder and team leader, said government should instead regulate sexuality information that is being given in regard to age groups.
“Government should have a policy on sexuality education that addresses needs of young people. Banning sexuality education without immediate solutions to sexuality challenges of adolescents and youths would sink the energies that have been fostered at addressing sexually transmitted infections and early pregnancies,” Mr Nabimanya said.
A recent study by Daily Monitor revealed that over 100 schools had been duped into training disguised homosexuality to their teachers and students.
The document titled The World Starts with Me (WSWM), there is a computer-based comprehensive sexuality education curriculum which was developed in 2003 by Butterfly Works and the World Population Foundation (WPF) in collaboration with SchoolNet Uganda, young people, teachers and artistes in Uganda.
The curriculum targets secondary school students and their teachers. For instance, it portrays homosexuality and masturbation as fulfilling sexual attributes among people who have consented and one way of controlling unwanted teenage pregnancies and early marriages.
