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INLSA<\/p>\n
Mchunu<\/p>\n
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Leanne Jansen <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
High schools in KwaZulu-Natal must immediately begin discussing how to provide pupils with access to condoms and how to facilitate voluntary HIV\/Aids testing. <\/p>\n
The time for debate on these contentious matters is over, according to provincial Education MEC Senzo Mchunu. <\/p>\n
It is a matter of \u201chow\u201d rather than \u201cshould or should not\u201d that schools had to figure out. <\/p>\n
Mchunu was speaking to The Mercury yesterday following a meeting of the province\u2019s executive council\u2019s social protection and community development cluster, which backed the \u201ccontrolled\u201d distribution of condoms in schools \u2013 but not without thorough consultation with parents and governing bodies. <\/p>\n
The proposed provision of condoms last year sparked fierce criticism. <\/p>\n
But the Integrated School Health Programme, a collaboration between the national departments of health and basic education launched last year, has also been hailed for the myriad other \u201ccritical\u201d services it affords pupils on school premises. These include the assessment of motor skills, oral hygiene, vision, hearing and mental health by healthcare professionals. <\/p>\n
Mchunu has become increasingly concerned by the \u201csocial ills\u201d plaguing KZN schools \u2013 not only that 10 595 pupils fell pregnant in 2011 (and the risks associated with unprotected sex) but also that drugs and alcohol were being brought into classrooms. <\/p>\n
While schools must remain places of teaching and learning and not become \u201chealth centres\u201d, the government and civil society could no longer close their eyes to the escalating dangers, Mchunu believes. <\/p>\n
Bar certain provisos, NGOs and governing body associations were not opposed to Mchunu\u2019s stance. <\/p>\n
While the school health programme provided for voluntary HIV\/Aids testing of pupils at clinics in their communities, \u201cwe don\u2019t think (that\u2019s adequate)\u201d, Mchunu said. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it is exactly what we want school governing bodies (and parents) to discuss\u2026 We no longer need to be ashamed to accept that children are sexually active at a young age,\u201d Mchunu said. <\/p>\n
The emphasis would be on schools where pupil pregnancy was prevalent. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are not going to force anybody. But we will be persuasive.\u201d <\/p>\n
NGOs Equal Education and the Treatment Action Campaign have welcomed the provision of condoms in schools, but believe it would be a \u201cserious problem\u201d if parent bodies were able to veto it. <\/p>\n
Equal Education\u2019s Yoliswa Dwane said she would not \u201cstrongly advocate\u201d HIV testing on school premises, but if pupils older than 16 wanted to be screened, counselling was a condition. <\/p>\n
The KZN head of the National Association of School Governing Bodies, Reginald Chiliza, backed Mchunu\u2019s preventative stance. However, he was against testing on school grounds, saying he was worried that privacy would not be guarded well enough. <\/p>\n
Vee Gani, from the Parents Association of KZN, said the sexual health services were necessary \u201cin certain schools\u201d. <\/p>\n
Tim Gordon, the national head of the Governing Body Foundation, said they would welcome a \u201ccarefully considered and managed\u201d programme of sexual health. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
INLSA Mchunu Leanne Jansen High schools in KwaZulu-Natal must immediately begin discussing how to provide pupils with access to condoms and how to facilitate voluntary HIV\/Aids testing. The time for debate on these contentious matters is over, according to provincial Education MEC Senzo Mchunu. It is a matter of \u201chow\u201d rather than \u201cshould or should […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-17699","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17699\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}