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
In the course of this study, the following research questions will be answered.
- To what extent will the content of sex education influence the perception of students towards teaching of sexuality education in schools?
- Will teacher’s gender influence the perception of students towards teaching of sexuality education in schools?
- Will societal norm influence the perception of students towards teaching of sexuality education in schools?
- To what extent will Religion and Cultural belief influence the perception of students towards the teaching of sexuality education in schools?
- Will age influence the perception of students towards the teaching of sexuality education in schools?
Research Hypotheses
The following research hypotheses were formulated and will be tested in the study.
- Content of sex education will not significantly influence the perception of students towards teaching of sexuality education in schools.
- Teacher’s gender will not significantly influence the perception of students towards teaching of sexuality education in schools.
- Societal norm will not significantly influence the perception of students towards teaching of sexuality education in schools.
- Religion and Cultural belief will not significantly influence the perception of students towards teaching sexuality education in schools.
- 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 five Hundred (500) students in the Junior and senior s school. It will be based on Two fifty (250) male students and Two fifty (250) female students which will be randomly selected across various schools.
Limitation of the Study
- Administration of questionnaire effectively
- Reluctance to participate in filling the questionnaire
- Gaining access to the respective participating students
- 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.
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