Mzansi Afrika: Condoms in the classroom

There's a whole big debate going on in the South African media at the moment about whether condoms should be made freely available in high schools. The Education Department has decided against this. Listening to a popular talk back radio show this evening on the topic, predictably most South Africans, at least those who called in to make their opinions known, agreed that condoms should not be provided in the classroom.

The main argument, surprise, surprise, was from the whole moralistic religious viewpoint that condoms encourage sex, and sex before marriage, especially among teens is bad. The other concerns were around sex and HIV/AIDS.

Of course in South Africa AIDS is a huge concern. It's more because of this that I would support the argument that teenagers should not be having sex, especially without using condoms. Where my concern lies, is that I'm not totally convinced that providing condoms causes people to go out and have sex. Teenagers are having sex anyway, so in light of the AIDS pandemic, wouldn't it be better to give them condoms?

On the other hand, a little voice whispers in my head, well what if you could buy drugs at your school canteen? If you had any curiosity to experiment, it sure as hell would make it a lot easier to go ahead.

I think it boils down to education and self-esteem. A lot of people experiment with drugs, and then either either leave it alone once their curiosity has been appeased, or continue to take the occassional drug here and there, no problem. But the one thing that just about every alcoholic and drug addict has in common is low self esteem - the drug of choice gives them a sense of confidence, temporarily removes their sense of being on the outside, and takes away that inner pain commonly described as the "hole in the soul". Girls who become sexually active from a young age, and continue to sleep around, generally suffer from the same problem, low self esteem and a longing to be loved and accepted.

I suppose there's also a gender aspect, boys who have sex are macho hero's, it's about proving your masculinity - so maybe having condoms freely available would make it easier for boys to have sex? And harder for girls to say no - "sorry no condom, no can do".

In an ideal world, teenagers would be properly educated about the emotional and health aspects of sexual intercourse. In an ideal world we would all come from loving families and be able to conduct our lives from a position of self acceptance and relative confidence. Unfortunately, we don't exactly live in an ideal world, and it's more the norm than the exception for people to grow up being emotionally wounded.

So, I really don't know what the answer is.

June 2006