Concept Paper

IMPACT OF SEX EDUCATION ON EARLY CHILD PREGNANCIES IN PRIMARY

SCHOOLS.

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1. The problem statements

The occurrences of childhood pregnancies have seen a rise despite the introduction of sexual
education in Uganda. This study aims at assessing the impact of sexuality education on early
child pregnancies in primary schools.

1.2. Background

In the last decades, sex education has often been portraying inaccurate information about
sexuality through mass media outlets, Semi-ignorant teachers and traditional beliefs. A girl
termed to be of age was taken to a private location where she was given inaccurate information
concerning hygiene, sex and marriage at large. It should also be noted that, boys(males) were
predominantly trained in skills like hunting, fighting and many more rather than sex education.
This partial training left a gap in society since only a fraction was taught this information.

In 2004, the (AB) Abstinence-only sex education was the only program used in the Ugandan
Education system to teach sexual education however it ignored other possibilities like the use of
condoms, pills. It should be noted that some of the pupils went ahead to get involved in sexual
activities and since they lacked knowledge of condom-use, most ended up contracting sexually
transmitted diseases such as HIV/AIDS or even ended up with unexpected pregnancies.
According to the New vision, the death rate due to unsafe abortions raised to 1,500 girls aged 14-
19 every year. A study done by Guttmacher institute indicated that an estimated 57,000 abortions
took place among Ugandan adolescents in 2013. This was no longer a personal problem; it was a
national catastrophe.
The Ministry of Education and Sports then launched the National Sexuality Education
Framework at Kampala Parents’ School on 11 May 2018 to equip the youth with information to
enable them make the right sexual choices to reduce sexuality and reproductive health challenges
such as teenage pregnancies, early marriages, and sexually transmitted infections. This was a
revised framework that entailed the condom-use education and use of contraception to reduce the
sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies thus reducing rates of unsafe abortions.
However even with these reforms, the government of Uganda has failed to curb the rates of
pregnancies in the adolescents of school going ages. It is still advised that parents should
scrutinize the kind of sex related information given to these students at school. It should be noted
that some of the children in primary schools who are given this sex education are extremely
innocent. Is it possible that this kind of education ignites the curiosity about sex in these tender
aged children? Is it possible that the sex education has failed to attain its initial aim or otherwise
to what extent has its initial aim been achieved?
 1.3. Aims and Objectives
1.3.1. General aim

 The main aim of this study is to assess the impact of sexuality education on childhood
pregnancies in Primary schools.

1.3.2. Specific objectives

 To obtain a statistical representation of childhood pregnancies in Uganda.

 To assess how best sex education can be passed on so that teenagers get the right
information and use it to make the right sexual decisions
 To propose ways to reduce the number of childhood pregnancies
 To understand the correlation between the form of sex education and pregnancy
occurrences.

1.4. Research Scope

 The general purpose of this research is to understand the contribution of sex education to
early childhood pregnancies. Focusing keenly on whether the contribution has been
positive or negative.
 The target audience of this research are young adolescents in primary schools a between
the ages of 10-19. The scope of the research will also focus on the sources of this sex
education such as teachers, parents/guardians and mass media e.g. newspapers and books.
 This study will carry out research on a sample of at least 5 different primary schools in
the different regions of Uganda during an estimated period of 6 months.
 Data to be collected and analyzed will be information from the past decades as well as
current data of the year 2020.

1.5. Research Significance

 Data from this study will provide a comparison between the negative and positive effects
of sex education and give an insight on the number of teenage pregnancies resulting from
the exposure of young adolescents to this sex education.

The results of this study will be of great benefit to the following;

 Ministry of education and sports: data analyzed will provide the ministry with insights
on the quality of the sex education they are conducting in schools and its effects. The
results will also provide a basis for decision making on how to improve the ways in
which this information is shared and its feasibility to be taught to certain student groups.

 Government of Uganda: Results obtained from this research will assist in creating a
knowledge base in policy-making regarding the dissemination of materials that support,
publicize and create sex education for young adolescents there by reducing the teenage
pregnancy numbers in the country.
  Students: Data obtained from this study will indirectly benefit this special group of
people. The exposure to the existence of sexuality education will guide the students on
what kind of sources they should obtain this information from and as well get to
understand its importance to prevent them from making these mistakes such as early
pregnancies. As a result of this study the proceeding policies will indirectly protect
students from being exposed to wrong information.

2. METHODOLOGY

 A structured questionnaire on demographic information for data collection. Capturing

details like: Age, Sex, how they got to know about sex, Sexual status (Whether active or
not). This will give us a clue of the numbers of pupils that got sex education and went
ahead to have sex, their age bracket, and we also intend to capture their thought about sex
education. Based on their sexual activity and practices we shall be able to tell whether
they use the knowledge got from sex education sessions to guard against pregnancy and
sexually transmitted infections.
 Data analysis on collected data using excel tool. The data got from the study shall be
analyzed and visualized. We hope to construct diagrams like graphs to demonstrate the
correlation between different attributes studied. This shall help us get deeper insight
about our data like, how many children know about sex education, how many heed to it
etc.
 A sampling of schools in the country. We hope to sample a small number of schools in
each region to act as the representative fraction for the rest. We shall have an average of
about 5-10 schools per region.

3. REFERENCES

 www.newvision.co.ug. (2020). Unsafe abortions kill 1,500 women a year in Uganda.

[online] Available at:
https://www.newvision.co.ug/new_vision/news/1333825/unsafe-abortions-kill-500-
women-uganda [Accessed 27 Feb. 2020].
 First Study on the Incidence of Abortion Among Ugandan Adolescents
Released[online] Available at:
https://www.guttmacher.org/news-release/2018/first-study-incidence-abortion-
among-ugandan-adolescents-released
 Embracing teen sexuality: Teenagers’ assessment of sexuality education in Uganda
[ARTICLE]
Florence Kyoheirwe Muhanguzi &Anna
Ninsiimahttps://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10130950.2011.610987