Question NW2680 to the Minister of Basic Education
11 January 2022 - NW2680
Hendricks, Mr MGE to ask the Minister of Basic Education
​1. Whether, noting that school learners should be taught about the importance of the sanctity and integrity of the human body (details furnished), her department’s Colloquium on Comprehensive Sexuality Education under the main theme the Key to Gender Responsive and Socially Inclusive Education with regard to the curriculum for 2022 will consider supporting views on fatherhood as expressed by leaders such as the late Chief Albert Luthuli; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details; 2. whether her department has refrained from accepting Eurocentric ideas in the curriculum for 2022; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details; 3. whether her department has ever considered that the school curriculum should rather be based on true African, Islamic, Christian, Jewish and Hindu values, instead of Eurocentric values; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details?
Reply:
- The Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) content in Life Orientation (LO) covers fatherhood, responsibility and accountability when addressing issues of early and unintended pregnancies to indicate that pregnancy is not just a burden for girls, but a collective responsibility of both girls and boys when it occurs. The fatherhood work is extended outside the curriculum in the implementation plan of the prevention and management of learner pregnancy in schools.
- In South Africa, the curriculum is implemented on the basis of the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS), which has been developed in the South African democratic and constitutional context. The CAPS has a very explicit Afrocentric focus.
- The curriculum content is designed in a South African context, which promotes constitutional values and principles, and embraces multiculturalism and diversity in terms of religious practices and other identities.