In SA's segregated pre-apartheid state, even sex education was racialised. Christian missionaries had very different lessons for black and white children There are many ways for young people to learn about sex. In talks between parents and children, in the sharing of information between peers, in initiation schools and in ceremonies preceding marriage, young people have learned about sex and sexual reproduction. They also learn about how societies define appropriate and inappropriate sexual behaviour.The idea that sex education should be taught at school is fairly recent and is strongly connected to the increasingly important roles that schools play in moulding future citizens. Most sex education programmes in this space tended until quite recently to be fairly conservative. They taught children and young people that sex should only occur in monogamous, heterosexual marriage.Debates about the need to make formal sexual education available to South African youth surfaced during the 1...
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