Suffer the little children
Mmegi Editor | Thursday December 15, 2016 14:36
The Ministry of Basic Education-led survey shows that about 33% of students engage in sex before the age of 13, and among those sexually active, 50% had more than one sexual partner in the last 12 months.
Among all respondents, 22% reported being forced to have sex the first time they had sexual intercourse and among those sexually experienced, 18.8% were forced to have sex in the last 12 months.
The disturbing trends only grow darker, the further one reads into the report: More than 22% of students reported having suicidal thoughts while 19.4% reported attempting suicide in the last 12 months. About 18% reported experimenting with and among these, 39.7% are current smokers. Nearly 36% reported using, more than eight percent reported ever using marijuana, 1.4% ever used glue, 0.6% ever used mandrax, 0.5% ever used cocaine. The data goes on and grows ever more frightening with each page. The survey has uncovered what many parents, social workers and civic organisations have been warning about, namely that future of this country is in peril.
Something is terribly wrong with the majority of our teenagers, on whom we are collectively counting on for the future and preservation of our nation.
HIV, violence, poverty, poor sexual choices, academic underperformance and the abandonment of time-honoured values, many of them embodied in the spirit of Botho, are just some of the vices tearing through this lost generation.
Disappointingly, many of these evils have their genesis in the older generation. It is the immoral men and women who are driving the spread of HIV among teens through intergenerational sex. It is these same predators corrupting our youths through transactional sex and partner violence, taking them away from their studies and robbing them of an opportunity to develop themselves and contribute to this nation. If the teens are shrugging off Botho, it is because many adults have already done so, abandoning their roles as guardians in society, to corrupt and violate teens in the most unforgivable manner. Intergenerational relationships have become so fashionable and romanticised that they are no longer viewed as taboo in certain communities and on social media. Even the mainstream media provides dating services for ‘sugar daddies and mommies’.
The Ministry’s survey is essentially an indictment on the adults and their failure to protect and develop the youth. Ultimately, however, the choice lies in each and every individual youth.
Even with social media heaping almost unbearable peer pressure, it is up to individual youths to decide their path in life and swim against the tide of immorality, substance abuse and corruption. Government, peer educators, civic organisations and parents will play a role, but the decision starts within the individual.
Today’s thought
“Peer pressure and social norms are powerful influences and they are classic excuses.”
– Andrew Lansley