Honourable MEC, Mme Mhaule
Parents and School Governing Bodies
Educators and learners
Senior managers and officials
Distinguished guests.
I’m glad to be here for today’s launch of Caring 4 Girls programme. Thank you for inviting me. Only last week we symbolically wrapped Women’s Month.
That was a special moment in our commemorative calendar in which we celebrate the many achievements of women while honouring struggle heroines who have paved the way for us when the odds were stacked against them. It is equally symbolic that the launch we witness here today happens not in August but in September. You’ll recall that in March this year we launched together with other partners, the Stop Rape campaign, also outside Women’s Month.
That campaign was to highlight the unacceptable levels of sexual assault in our communities and schools and to mobilise all of society to take action against such violations of rights. The sustained public outrage and people-driven campaigns this year really showed our nation’s commitment seriously to tackle with government gender-based violence and all other forms of violence.
This year we made a much clearer statement to advance gender equity, justice and equal treatment for all culminating in the August focus month. Like the launch of the Stop Rape campaign early this year, outside the Women’s Month, unveiling Care 4 Girls beyond August should send a powerful message that our commitment to promoting human rights of young girls in our care should not be limited to Women’s Month. It is and should always be a sustained struggle, with no effort spared on our part.
I join you here today therefore to congratulate the province and all partners involved in the launch of the Care 4 Girls programme. This programme emanates from the Provincial Education Department’s response to the high prevalence of HIV and AIDS and pregnancy among learners in Mpumalanga, in particular, in the Gert Sibande District. We’re indebted to the partnership with Imbuba Foundation that is distributing sanitary towels to the poorest of our girl-learners. We know that the single best intervention that the education system can make in preventing HIV infection and unwanted pregnancy is to keep learners in schools until they complete their matric, in the very least.
We also know that young women are at a much higher risk for HIV infection and therefore it is critical to target interventions at them that prevent barriers to teaching and learning. I am encouraged that the Foundation not only distributes sanitary towels to needy girls but it also rolls out a menstrual hygiene programme for underprivileged girls mainly in rural communities.
As the education sector this is important as it complements the work currently being done by officials in the national department around health promotion. Please allow me to highlight some of the programmes in the national department that resonate neatly with the menstrual hygiene programme that are rolled out by Imbuba Foundation.
Firstly, the national department has instituted the HIV and AIDS Life Skills Education Programme. This programme finds its mandate from the National Policy on HIV and Aids for Learners and Educators in Schools (1999). It was initiated in 2000 and is implemented in all public schools with a focus on learners in Grades 1 to 12. The main objectives of the Life Skills Programme are to integrate HIV and AIDS and relevant life skills into the school curriculum as a strategy to prevent and mitigate the spread of HIV and more recently, TB infection, and to provide care and support for learners infected and affected by HIV and AIDS.
Thus, if the life skills programme is implemented in our schools to the fullest, this will go some way in reducing the high prevalence of learner pregnancy in the District, and ultimately in the province. It is heartening to note that the Caring 4 Girls Programme is borne out of the peer education component of the HIV and AIDS Life Skills Education Programme.
Secondly, there is empirical evidence that paints a strong correlation between alcohol and drug abuse and risky sexual behaviours. Researchers assert that there is a high propensity towards unprotected sex when a learner is under the influence of alcohol and drugs than it may otherwise be the case. On account of this empirical finding, the national department has a dedicated programme on Alcohol and Drug use Prevention and Management.
The programme is integrated into the school curriculum through the Life Orientation/Life Skills subject area. Every year the world commemorates World AIDS Day on 1 December in recognition of the devastating impact that HIV and AIDS has had on our communities. Each year during September as a school community we take the opportunity to highlight our contribution in the fight against HIV, and more recently TB. This year’s commemoration within education will focus on the risk that tobacco, alcohol and drug abuse pose for HIV infection and unwanted pregnancy.
Learners across the country will participate in a poster competition titled “The low down on the high life”: tobacco, alcohol, drug use and sex... connect the dots to HIV and TB infections”. The winners will be awarded prizes at a national prize-giving to be held in Gert Sibande District, Mpumalanga, on 3 December. It is really wonderful that we can give impetus to our World AIDS Day commemoration through this very important programme, Caring 4 Girls.
Also, we have had advocacy campaigns in schools on careers, life skills, as well as rights and responsibilities through the Girls/Boys Education Movement (GEM-BEM). In all these campaigns, the anti-drug and alcohol message featured prominently. There are plans to continue these advocacy campaigns in the month of September and throughout the entire 2014. For this we are greatly indebted to UNICEF for financial and logistical support.
Thirdly, our peer education programmes in the national department are also meant to assist learners and parents. Peer education is meant to support and strengthen what is being taught in the curriculum. I dare say it is an effective approach to influence peer group norms, especially those peer group norms that may have a negative influence on individual group members. Peer education also offers a channel through which to role model desired behaviour, to shift attitudes, share ideas, and develop critical thinking about existing peer group behaviour and group norms.
Fourthly, the department has an established programme on values through the rights and responsibilities campaign. We launched the campaign with religious leaders of the different faiths as well as Lead SA in 2011. Since then, we have ensured that rights and responsibilities become an important component of the Life Orientation curriculum. We have further disseminated information about rights and responsibilities in all the workbooks we have distributed and will continue to do so each academic year.
The basic tenet of the campaign on rights and responsibilities is the idea that with each right comes a set of corresponding responsibilities, or obligations. It is a message that says as learners, you have the duty to act responsibly. Falling pregnant while still at school illustrates that you have abdicated that responsibility. The message of responsibility also should go out to you as parents. We ought to ask ourselves poignant questions, like:
‘What it is in our parenting that young people would still fall pregnant while in our care? What it is that I as a parent am not doing well?’ This is a self-reflective exercise about which we all need to engage. It ought to preoccupy our psyche and daily discourse that learners in our communities are involved in risky sexual behaviours, as illustrated by the high prevalence of learner pregnancy and HIV infections.
I say this not to deflect attention from the responsibility that we as government also have but rather to make the point that we are in this together and we ought to join hands. “Education is a societal issue!” All of us should be involved in our own spheres of influence to make a difference. These are not government’s children, they are our own children.
Lastly, I would like to take this opportunity to wish you well in your endeavours. Beyond this launch Care 4 Girls should grow from strength to strength. Be assured of our unwavering support as you continue to roll out the programme all year round. Care for girl-learners, just like women’s rights, should be sustained and promoted over 365 days of each year, not only during Women’s Month in August.
I thank all of you and wish all our learners success in the coming end-of-year exams. Make us all proud!
