NGO develops model on sexual reproductive health education

The Northern Sector Action on Awareness Centre (NORSAAC), a Tamale based NGO has developed a model to guide the teaching of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) issues of young people in School.

The SRHR model is based on the organization’s experience in the implementation of SRHR education programmes in the Northern Region in collaboration with Axis, a Danish NGO with funding from DANIDA.

Mr Abdul-Kabiru Tiah Mahama, Education and Advocacy Officer of NORSAAC, told the GNA in an interview that the guide was developed following a survey conducted during the implementation of the Community Based Sexuality Education Project (CBSEP), which was later scaled into the Innovative Sexuality Education Project (ISEP).

He said the model was being developed to take records of best practices and success stories of the CSEP and ISEP I & II, which involved the participation of some 12, 960 pupils, 96 youth and mother peer educators, 258 sexuality education teachers and 4,240 out of school young people in the Karaga district and the Savelugu/Nanton Municipality.

Mr Mahama said the model would serve as a guide for decision makers in school education and as a prototype for the various districts in the northern region to implement SRHR education to reduce high rates of teenage pregnancies in schools, induced abortion and sexual immorality.

He urged decision makers to be concerned and make use of the model when completed and published to fulfil the requirement of the Ghana Education Act, Act 778 of 2008, to give comprehensive education for pupils.

“The act calls for the establishment of an educational system intended to produce well balanced individuals with the requisite knowledge, skills, values...for the total development and the democratic advancement”, he said.