By Landing Ceesay
The Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education [MoBSE] in a day-long session oriented 25 Journalists on comprehensive Health Education.
The forum was meant to disseminate the comprehensive Health Education Research conducted by the ministry to all stakeholders and partners.
“The issue around comprehensive Health Education which includes Reproductive Health, Sexual Transmitted Infection and all other health-related matters is necessary to start looking at how properly it can be integrated into the school curriculum,” Mr Momodou Jeng, Director and project leader said.
He said the programme targets adults and adolescents thus the inclusion of Upper Basic and Senior Secondary Schools; but not only limited to eight schools because other schools that will need information as well about comprehensive Health Education will also be included.
He informed that when they started their engagement they realised that a lot of people are developing an interest in Comprehensive Health Education.
“Lots of people are developing interest in the comprehensive Health Education because they are living with it. They are facing challenges. They have no one to turn to and when they realise that the data we are sharing as part of this research is speaking to their realities what they lived with,” the project leader informed.
Momodou added that there are cases of baby dumping, cases of sexually transmitted infections and all issues of the publication on comprehensive Health Education all over the country. He continued that it is affecting the adolescents and a lot of students in upper basic and senior secondary schools.
“Are parents talking to their children about sexual issues? This is not discussed at home. It is not discussed at the community level. If it is addressed at the level of the schools, then where do you think we are going to get the information? That’s why the research finding has revealed for us to start using at the curriculum level,”Jeng stated.
The session took place at the Regional Education Office 1 in Kanifing on Wednesday 9th June, 2021.
The Comprehensive Health Education Research is currently being implemented by the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education [MoBSE] in the country. The project titled –Strengthening Access to quality comprehensive Health Education in The Gambia.