Minister withdraws Moral Education book from schools

CHANDAPIWA BAPUTAKI
Staff Writer | Friday February 25, 2011 00:00

 

The minister told Parliament yesterday that she is embarrassed by the contents of the book. She said the book will be recalled from schools pending a review and recasting so that it becomes acceptable. 'I will also make use of the period of review to revise our processes leading from curriculum to book production and review to make sure that we do not suffer similar embarrassment in the future,' she said. The book is from Diamond Educational Publishers with C Malense, U Mokobi, S Letsholo and V Anderson as the authors.

Venson-Moitoi told parliamentarians that she read the book and discussed it with officials in her ministry involved in the curriculum and book reviews.

She said she found a detailed elaboration in the chapter on sex education which could be considered inappropriate for students Form Two. 'The book also makes reference to certain religions in light that might not be kindly regarded or accepted,' she said.

The book came under the spotlight this week when one parent got the shock of her life when her daughter was given an assignment to write on forms of sexual satisfaction. Chapter Three of the book says  students are expected to explain the forms of sexual satisfaction. It describes various forms of sexual intercourse including masturbation and use of sex toys in detail.

After reading the chapter, students are required to be able to identify all the sexual intercourse forms and describe the views on the morality of any one form of sexual satisfaction and to state their own views. The chapter teaches the students who are mostly 14-year olds the moral implications of having sex and factors affecting sexual negotiation and decision-making such as age difference between sexual partners, lack of assertiveness, economic factors and inexperience about sexual matters.

It teaches the students about the use of a condom, types of sexual relationship like heterosexuality, homosexuality and bisexuality, adultery, fornication, rape, prostitution, sodomy and bestiality. 

A lecturer at the University of Botswana, Log Raditlhokwa said the students at the age targeted by the book are not ready mentally to be taught sexual matters using such explicit language. 'They are not fully developed socially and can get confused and end up doing inappropriate things. Parents do not even know how to handle that (sex) material,' he explained.

He explained that students at junior secondary schools should not be taught about explicit sex talk before they are taught positive character building, self-control and discipline. 'Giving them all this information at the same time before they are ready could result in them going wild and experimenting. Character building is meant to help them on how to conduct themselves. Parents cannot even support their children because they themselves are not mentally ready,' he said.