Gendered Differences in the Teaching of Sex Education among Secondary School Teachers in Auta Balefi, Nigeria

Abstract

Sex education in schools has continued to gain support from various stakeholders especially with students and parents alike identifying the school as a viable source of information on adolescent reproductive health. Evidence from literature on the other hand juxtaposes the success of school-based programmes on the relationship that exists or not between the socio-demographic characteristics of teachers and their teaching of sex education. The study was aimed among others at investigating the relationship between socio-demographic factors and the teaching of sex education. Eleven secondary schools with a total of 219 teachers were included in the study. Due to the relatively small population size, the study made use of the entire population. Two hypotheses were formulated to test at 0.05(95%) the level of significance on gender differences and educational qualification in teaching sex education. The result indicated that there is no significant relationship between the sex of teachers and their attitude towards sex education, and that there is no significant relationship between the educational status of teachers and their attitude towards sex education. This is because majority of the teachers have some form of training on sex education which neutralizes personal differences such as sex and educational status. Further findings revealed that 90.5% of the respondents have positive attitude towards sex education and were willing to teach sex education in their various schools. The authors recommend, among others, that continuing encouragement might be necessary to support teachers' interest in teaching sex education.