Basic Education Minister, Angie Motshekga, says that the country needs to realise that Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) is a keystone to push back against social ills, especially HIV, and early and unintended pregnancies.

Motshekga said that she is alive to the reality that addressing social ills is a societal responsibility, hence using a public medium such as radio to reach out to parents and caregivers.

The Minister was speaking at the launch of the CSE radio lessons at Hitekani Primary School in Tshiawelo, Soweto on Tuesday.

The Minister said that she felt honoured and privileged to address the launch of ‘Life on Madlala Street’, a radio drama series adapted from the Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) lessons.

The series is adapted from the 80 CSE scripted lessons, which are already part of the Life Skills and Life Orientation curriculum.

The first episode of ‘Life on Madlala Street’ played today and the next five lessons will play on 15 and 22 February, and 1 and 8 March on 22 community radio stations.

“I am genuinely excited that we are witnessing the launch of the CSE Radio Lessons today in “our lifetime” as a country. In the main, this radio drama series seeks to liberate the girl child and women from the iron grip of patriarchy,” she said.

The Minister said that the department opted to use the much-loved and accessible medium of radio to amplify the critical messages of CSE in an age-appropriate manner.

She said their target market is a million brains of learners, teachers, parents, caregivers, and radio lovers of all hues.

“Our determination is to teach the values of gender equality anti-gender-based violence messaging while tackling the hot potato of early and unintended pregnancies,” she said.

She highlighted the fact that all these social ills such as drugs/alcohol use, early pregnancies, and gender-based violence sometimes happen on school grounds or to learners accentuates that maxim that our schools are a microcosm of society.

“Thus, the drama series ‘Life on Madlala Street’ is a last-ditch effort to scale up our prevention messages through the medium of radio,” she said.

The Minister noted that the launch of this ground-breaking radio drama series comes days before the country marks 2022 Pregnancy Awareness Week and Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs)/Condom Week.

At present, the sector provides scripted lessons on Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) and health services to learners, such as access to sexual and reproductive health services in secondary schools.

However, in primary schools, the sector focuses on raising awareness of social justice principles and addressing vulnerabilities such as abuse reporting and support for children from gender-based violence infested homes.

“We also focus on preventing learner pregnancy, alcohol and drug use and now also COVID-19, all these are considered risk factors to women’s health and fertile grounds for gender-based violence,” she said.

Motshekga added that their response is multi-faceted to systematically address the identified social ills, including anti-gender-based violence messaging in the curriculum and assessment and learning and teaching support materials.

She said that the primary concern is the impact of social ills such as gender-based violence and rapes which negatively affect women’s and girls’ well-being and mental health.

Motshekga has urged society to confront the elephant in the room, “men who have gone rogue in the name of exerting power through sexual assault”.

Source: South African Government News Agency