CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the study
Sexuality
education begins at home. Parents and caregiver are/and ought to be the primary
sexuality educators of their children. Opportunities to discuss sexuality
issues with children occur on a daily basic.
According to SIECUS (2009) Sexuality education
is a lifelong process of acquiring information and forming attitude, beliefs
and values. it encompasses sexual
development, sexual and reproductive health, interpersonal relationship,
affection, intimacy, body image and gender roles.
From
the moment of birth, children learn about love, touch and relationship. Infants
and toddlers learn about sexuality when their parent talk to them, dress them,
show affection, and teach them the names of the parts of their body. As
children rows into adolescence, they continue to receive message about sexual
behavior, attitude, and values from their family in an informal way. sexuality
is also learn from other sources such as
friends,television,music,books,advertisement and internet which are all forms
of informal way of learning.
The formal ways of acquiring sexuality
education include planned opportunities such as faith communities,
community-based sexuality education as well as Abstinence-only in sex related
matters, the school –based sexuality education is often comprehensive and as
such provide certain guidelines in form of objectives to be achieved at the end
of the programme.The school –based sexuality education provides accurate
information about human sexuality, it provides opportunity for people to
develop and understand their values, attitude and insight about sexuality, help
young people to develop relationship and
interpersonal skills among others .These
scope and others such as human development ,relationship, decision making,
abstinence, contraception, and disease prevention are what makes school-based
sexuality education differ from other forms of sexuality education.
Even
though we know the values of sexuality education to human development,
maturation, family life and all forms of relationship. Yet sexuality education
is not been currently taught at the secondary school level-a level that can
referred to as transitional level in nature, from childhood to adulthood .the
reason for these decision by the federal government, state government and local
government as well as ministry of education is not certain to the ordinary
citizen of this country, but it is certain that it is neither because sexuality
education is irrelevant nor is it because students do not want to learn about
it.
Though
the content for a junior secondary level on sexuality education may not be same
for senior secondary school level because of their level of development and
maturation. To this end, the study want to seek
the opinion of students on
sexuality education, and determine if they will like sexuality education to be
a core subject either at junior level or senior secondary.
Statement of the problem
The
researcher have observed that most
students in secondary school are of divergent view when it comes to matters of
sexuality and such lack of information have led many teenagers into engaging in
sexual activities without precaution which have resulted in higher rate of
unwanted pregnancies among female and sexually transmitted diseases likewise.
To this end, the researcher wants to know the perception of secondary school
students on sexuality education.
Purpose of the study
The
purpose of this study is to investigate whether sexuality education should be
inculcated into the secondary school curriculum and at what level of study.
Research Questions
1. To
what extent will the content of sex education influence the perception of
students towards teaching of sexuality education in schools?
2. Will
teacher’s gender influence the perception of students towards teaching of
sexuality education in schools?
3. Will
societal norm influence the perception of students towards teaching of
sexuality education in schools?
4. To
what extent will Religion and Cultural belief influence the perception of
students towards the teaching of sexuality education in schools?
5.
Will age influence the
perception of students towards the teaching of sexuality education in schools?
Research Hypotheses
1. Content
of sex education will not significantly influence the perception of students
towards teaching of sexuality education in schools.
2. Teacher’s
gender will not significantly influence the perception of students towards
teaching of sexuality education in schools.
3. Societal
norm will not significantly influence the perception of students towards
teaching of sexuality education in schools.
4. Religion
and Cultural belief will not significantly influence the perception of students
towards teaching sexuality education in schools.
5. Age
will not significantly influence the perception of students towards teaching of
sexuality education in schools.
Significance of the study
This
work will provide relevant clues to schools, ministries of education, parents,
community and other stakeholders in education on whether or not sexuality
education should be a part of secondary school curriculum and the level it
should commence. It will give schools and parents in particular the feedback on
what students feel about sexuality education and lastly, it will recommend a
veritable pathway towards changing the attitude that may be noted during the
course of this research work while giving clue to how sexuality education
textbooks can be adjusted to suit the relevance of secondary school students
without over exposing them psychologically
Delimitation of the
study
This study will be delimited to ten (10)
schools in Lagos State.
Surulere Girls secondary school, Odi-Olowo,
Mushin.
Ajigbeda Girls Junior High School, Surulere,
Lagos.
Lagos City Senior Secondary School, Sabo-Yaba,
Lagos.
Ijero Secondary School, Ebute-metta, Lagos.
Gbaja
Girls Secondary School, Surulere, Lagos.
Obele High School, Surulere, Lagos.
Ogunlade senior secondary School, Surulere,
Lagos.
Onitolo community high School, Surulere,
Lagos.
Longford secondary School, Ebute-metta, Lagos.
Iponri Grammar School, Surulere, Lagos.
The
study will be delimited to the use of questionnaire. The study will involve Six
Hundred (500) students in the Junior and senior s school. It will be based on
Three Hundred (250) male students and Three Hundred (250) female students which
will be randomly selected across various schools.
Limitation of the study
1. Administration
of questionnaire effectively
2. Reluctance
to participate in filling the questionnaire
3. Gaining
access to the respective participating students
4. Uneasy
retrieval of questionnaire
Definition of key terms
Abstinence: An act of staying away from danger.
Adolescence: This is an individual that can be called a
teenager or person that has passed the stage of puberty
Contraception: An act of preventing pregnancy or STDs.
Feasible: Capable of been done, effected, or
accomplished.
Gender: A particular sex of a person.
Insight: An instance of apprehending the true nature
of a thing.
Intimacy: A close, familiar, and affectionate.
Outright: complete or total.
Puberty: A
state of change in growth
Veritable: Being truly or very much so.