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Introduction
It has been nearly a decade since the need for sexuality education was recognized as important and international guidelines were established by UNESCO (Goldman, 2012). Intended for decision-makers and professionals in the education and health sectors, the guidelines include evidence and expert advice on the importance of sexuality education, its implementation in schools, age-appropriate topics, useful resources, and procedures for key stakeholders. Countries are encouraged to use this advice to provide evidence-based and rights-based education that provides children with a wide range of important knowledge about relationships, sexuality, reproduction, and HIV/AIDS, and many countries, especially developing countries, are further promoting sexuality education (Goldman, 2012). The question at hand is how sex education policies have provoked responses and how they have been integrated into education and practice in the nearly decade since the guidelines were established by UNESCO. This essay focuses on Kenya, where public education about sex seems to be still a taboo subject, especially among the older generation (Kiragu, 2013). In the course of my research, it has been revealed that the sex education curriculum in Kenya delivered many hegemonies and messages to children and that in an increasingly globalized society, Kenya's national education policy is under pressure from the international community. In light of these findings, this essay will discuss sexuality education in Kenya from two perspectives: curriculum and policy.

1. Curriculum aspects
First, the focus will be on the curriculum surrounding sexuality education. According to Rizvi and Lingard, there are two different orders of curriculum (Rizvi and Lingard, 2010). One is that of discipline, and Curriculum as a discipline can be replaced by the term policy. This is because the policy is fundamentally concerned with the distribution of authoritative values and the establishment of rules compatible with those values. In other words, the curriculum can be used to discipline nations and regions with political intent. Another meaning of curriculum is the order of learning. This includes what is taught, who teaches it, and how it is taught. The complication with the curriculum is that it may intentionally or unintentionally instill certain messages or concepts in students. This is known as the hidden curriculum (Giroux and Penna, 1979). Considering this hidden curriculum, any particular teaching method or content chosen for education in any country will contain some sort of hidden curriculum. And like any other subject, sexuality education in each country and region is influenced by curriculum and thus hidden curriculum. This chapter focuses on the hidden curriculum of sexuality education in Kenya in particular to reveal the unspoken space between things.

The first question is this: What is sexuality education? Definitions vary, for example, in Europe, it is defined as “It gradually equips and empowers children and young people with information, skills and positive values to understand and enjoy their sexuality, have safe and fulfilling relationships and take responsibility for their own and other people's sexual health~”(UNFPA, 2015) Similarly, UNESCO developed guidelines for comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) in 2018, which state that “a curriculum-based process of teaching and learning about the cognitive, emotional, physical and social aspects of sexuality”(UNESCO, 2018). However, these definitions are relatively on the positive side, and sexuality education may have more negative connotations in some countries and regions. Singh et al (2021) note that the clearest and most positive definitions of sexuality education tend to be found in reports from Europe, the United States, and Australia. On the other hand, they report that few examples from Africa or Asia focused on positive definitions of sexuality education (Singh et al., 2021). Taking the Asian country of Japan as an example, despite its image of relatively high educational standards, sexuality education is not well developed. One textbook is noted to have human body diagrams that teach body development completely covered by clothing, preventing children from deepening their understanding of body parts (Tashiro, Ushitora, and Watanabe, 2011) There is another report indicating the hidden curriculum of CSE in Japan. The report mentions that when the students received sexuality education for the first time in the fourth grade in elementary school, boys and girls were separated and taken to different classrooms (Sato, 2006). This method of education may have the potential to instill in children the norm that they are not allowed to discuss sexual topics with the opposite sex, and it almost completely ignores gender equality and gender consensus building, which are considered an important part of comprehensive sexuality education.

Similar to the Japanese example, it has been noted that in Kenya the sexuality education curriculum conveys certain messages to children (Keogh et al., 2018). One of these is that students view sex and sexuality education negatively. One report noted that the Kenyan curriculum only mentions abstinence and does not provide broad, inclusive instruction such on gender and human rights (Sidze et al.,2017). Such education may emphasize the message to suppress sexual desire and may constitute a hidden curriculum that reinforces the idea that sexual activity is not good. UNESCO also points out that education that teaches only body systems and abstinence under the title of sexuality education reinforces negative associations with sexuality, and that it is important to consider individual values regarding sexuality (UNESCO, 2012). In addition, the situation is such that sex education is not a stand-alone subject in the Kenyan curriculum, but is part of life skill education (Keogh et al., 2018). Keogh et al. (2018) reported that sex education is not adequately addressed in such a curriculum, and in fact, some teachers proceed with the class with little or no reference to sex education. It is assumed to be difficult to provide sexuality education of a certain quality with a curriculum that relies so heavily on teachers' values and teaching methods. Another study of 170 teachers in Kenya pointed to a lack of training, insufficient time devoted to CSE classes, and insufficient teaching materials as reasons for unsatisfactory CSE education (Ogolla and Ondia, 2019). Although this report cannot be generalized due to the small number of sample teachers, it can be considered that many factors are intertwined in providing CSE to students. Thus, it may be important to note that sexuality education itself can be a hidden curriculum, depending on how and in what ways students receive information.

On the other hand, as Apple (1990) points out, the hidden curriculum can be challenged and revised thanks to those who speak out about the shortcomings of the existing curriculum. As one example, let us raise South Africa. In South Africa, a nationwide student movement emerged in 2015 to reform a longstanding curriculum based on values such as white racism, capitalism, patriarchy, and heterosexism, and to use the fight to change universities as a springboard for social change, including deeper democracy and reform of unequal land distribution. The fight was hard-fought, and by 2019 the student movement had collapsed, but it did have some successes that led to curricular transformation. Specifically, student fees for poor and middle-class students at all universities were eliminated, and several departments within universities began to reorganize their curricula with student input (Naidoo, 2016). Thus, opposition and resistance to the hidden curriculum can lead to curriculum improvement.

In the case of sexuality education in Kenya, people are still debating at what age this education, which includes sensitive content, should be included in the curriculum (Sidze et al., 2017). According to Sidze et al. (2017), some people think it should be taught from elementary school age, while others protest that it is too early. Given that as long as some speak out against the National Curriculum, there is always the possibility that the hidden curriculum will be revealed and modified, sexuality education in Kenya has the potential to change for the better.

In summary, the curriculum has two meanings: discipline and policy, and encompasses aspects of the hidden curriculum that instill certain norms in people through the curriculum. This is true for sex education in Kenya, where abstinence-only education will lead children to have a negative image of sex. It should be noted that such a hidden curriculum is complicated by multiple factors, including the content of the curriculum, the teacher's teaching style, and the lack of teaching materials. Finally, it should be pointed out that criticism of such a hidden curriculum has been voiced within Kenya, and the curriculum has the potential to be changed.

2. Policy aspects in this globalized society
Kenya's national policy has actively sought to incorporate sex education; in 2013, the country took the lead in pushing for CSE by agreeing to a CSE promotion plan signed by 20 countries in Eastern and Southern Africa (Ogolla and Ondia, 2019). However, while sex education is included in the policy, it has not spread to school teachers and students. Many reports of inadequate sex education in school settings point to the fact that education is not providing enough information, even though many students are seeking information (Cobbett, McLaughlin and Kiragu, 2013; Obare and Birungi, 2013; Keogh et al., 2021). In this chapter, two elements will be examined of why curriculum policy is not aligned with schools, communities, and other settings. It would be also considered why policies ignore this misalignment and the harm it does to students.

The first possible reason for the disconnect between the government (national curriculum) and the field (schools and communities) is the social perception of sex education. In Kenya, talking about sex in public is still taboo (Kiragu, 2013), and it may be difficult for school teachers and students to talk about and learn about sex, no matter how much it is included in the national education policy. One example of Kenya's conservative perspective on sex is a failed national sex education campaign that was criticized by students' parents and teachers; in 2013, the Kenyan government signed a declaration committing to expanding comprehensive, rights-based sex education from elementary school (Ogolla and Ondia, 2019). However, the “Stop CSE” online campaign opposes this curriculum as “one of the greatest attacks on children's health and innocence” (Magdalene, 2020.). This indicates a certain gap between the government and the community in how sexuality education is viewed.

The second factor may be the cultural tradition of informal sex education. For example, traditional methods of sex education have been used in the Gikuyu, a tribe that is home to about 6 million people, or 21 percent of Kenya's population (Karanja, 2004). In this method, parents act as teachers, so to speak, and children follow the rules of the community in their sexual lives. The study reports that this sex education is based on a unique system in which there is a constant evaluation by parents and others in the community, and a psychological reluctance to break the rules morally (Kiragu, 2013). Similar informal education is found in Nakaseke, Uganda, Ganda village (Dralega, 2008). This is an area where elderly Ugandan women have successfully taught sexual knowledge to young women through a program called “Senga”. The program discusses a wide range of family topics from puberty and sex education to gender roles in the home and includes a nurse who can give medical advice on sexually transmitted diseases and other sexual problems. As a result, they have gained the trust of young women in the region and have become an alternative source of information to public education (Dralega, 2008). Although it is difficult to generalize, as it is reported that 30% of children do not receive sex education from their parents (APHRC, 2017), each region may have a unique sexuality education that has been passed down over the years in addition to receiving CSE as public education. In other words, as these examples from Kenya and Uganda show, there are informal forms of sexuality education that are separate from the public education curriculum. and it is clear that informal education is one way to deepen their understanding of sexuality topics. At this point, there is little connection or affinity between public education and informal education, and there is a disconnect between government public education policies and community sexuality education policies.

Despite this clear divergence between community and policy due to social recognition and informal sex education, why is the government pushing for a uniform CSE curriculum as if to ignore it? It could be considered that there is pressure here from international organizations and the international community. It has been pointed out that the international guidelines established by UNESCO have played a major role in promoting CSE, but at the same time, there is uniform pressure on countries to adopt CSE (Goldman, 2012). The pressure may be linked to the concept of human capital advocated by WHO and others. This is because reducing AIDS is expected to increase human capital and lead to economic growth (Ruckert, 2006). In this sense, the pressure on countries should be stronger the more AIDS patients a country has. Kenya is one of the countries suffering from AIDS and receives a lot of financial support from international organizations. Although the number of HIV patients in Kenya is decreasing, it is estimated that 111,500 people are still suffering from HIV as of 2020(UNICEF, 2020). Therefore, for the Kenya government, having a policy that incorporates CSE education is synonymous with showing a willingness to face HIV. Moreover, a decrease in HIV means an increase in human capital, the government may be trying to look good to the international community by making them think that future economic growth can be expected based on the idea of human capital.

However, many challenges arise from the misalignment between the national level policy of promoting CSE and actual schooling that is hesitant to teach sexuality education. For example, Students' perception of sex education noted that peers and the media were the known sources of information on sex education compared to teachers (Karanja, 2004). This could be that young people are not getting enough information and seeking information elsewhere, including turning to porn(Singh, Both and Philpott, 2021). Moreover, although there is a certain number of teachers who teach sex-positivity, there is a need for help and support to enable educators to talk about sexuality more conformably, as those teachers are not fully comfortable teaching sex positivity (Singh, Both and Philpott, 2021). This study also reports that students list masturbation, sex, contraception and condoms, porn, and relationships as the information they would like schooling to provide. Those suggest that children themselves, the beneficiaries of education, are also looking for more comprehensive sexuality education that is not just a surface level. Thus, there are frayed educational policies that are only superficially responding to pressure from international organizations and the international community, and teachers, the direct providers of education, are not in a comfortable position to offer CSE education. Ironically, the result is that children, the beneficiaries of these policies, suffer from a lack of information about sexuality in public education.

In sum, there is a significant gap between policies at the national level and education in the field. First, there are social factors that make sexuality education a taboo subject; second, sexuality education is conducted as informal education within the community and is not linked to public education. Political and economic pressures from international organizations and the international community may have influenced the government to promote CSE despite this misalignment. However, there is a challenge that CSE education that is not appropriate for the field will ultimately fail to deliver a satisfactory education to students, and an educational policy that takes into account both the pressures from the international community and domestic educational needs will be required.

Conclusion
This essay analyzed sexuality education in Kenya from two aspects: curriculum and policy. First, the curriculum has two meanings: discipline and sequence of learning, both of which create a hidden curriculum in the sense that it cannot escape political and other agendas. This is also true in sexuality education, with the Kenyan example being a fragmented education that encourages abstinence-only; it should also be noted that hidden curriculum has multiple intertwining factors, such as teachers' teaching methods and lack of teaching materials. Nevertheless, it is not impossible to improve the hidden curriculum, and in fact, there is an ongoing debate in Kenya regarding the age at which sex education should begin. The second topic is policy. It has been pointed out that Kenya's policy for promoting sexuality education is out of sync with the needs of school sites and students, and this is thought to be due to the social perception of sex as taboo and the traditional culture of informal sex education. The reason for the Kenyan government's eagerness to promote CSE despite this misalignment may be due to pressure from the international community. It is believed that the Kenyan government is expected mainly by international organizations to work to reduce the number of HIV cases and increase human capital, and in response, a sex education policy in line with UNESCO's CSE guidelines is being developed. However, such a superficial education policy with much political agenda may not be useful to the children who receive the education. For satisfactory sex education to be provided in Kenya, it will be necessary to organize and implement an educational curriculum that reflects not only pressure from the international community but also the voices of teachers and students, who should be at the center of education.

Essay Draft (1,000 words)
Sexuality education in Kenya: What is the link between the globalized world and its curriculum?

INTRODUCTION:

It has been about 10 years since the need for sex education became important and international guidelines were established (Goldman, 2012). This guideline made by UNESCO has impacted many countries to push comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) further. A question at hand is that within the last 10 years, what kind of responses sex education policies have provoked, and how they are being embedded in education and put into practice. In this issue, we will focus on Kenya, where sex is still a taboo subject, especially among the adult generation, and summarize the debate on sexuality education that Kenya is facing in this increasingly globalized society. In the course of the research, it became clear that sexuality education in Kenya is controversial on two points: policy and curriculum.

1. Curriculum Aspects

First, the focus is on the curriculum surrounding sexuality education. According to, there are two kinds of order in the curriculum. One is the meaning of discipline. Curriculum as a discipline can be replaced by the word policy. This is because the policy is fundamentally concerned with the distribution of authoritative values and the establishment of rules that conform to those values. In other words, the curriculum can be used to discipline the nation or region with political intention. And the other order of curriculum is the sequence of learning. This includes what to teach, who teaches it, and how it is taught. The complexity of the curriculum is that it may intentionally or unintentionally implant certain messages or concepts on students. This is known as a hidden curriculum. Any education in any country that selects certain teaching methods or content can be said to contain some kind of hidden curriculum. And just as any other subject, sexuality education in each country and region is also influenced by curricula and hidden curricula. This chapter focuses on the hidden curriculum of sexuality education in Kenya in particular, in order to reveal the unspoken space between things.

The first question is this. What is sexuality education? Definitions vary, but Singh et al. note that the clearest and most positive definitions of sexuality education tend to be found in reports from Europe, the United States, and Australia. On the other hand, there were few examples from Africa or Asia that focused on positive definitions of sexuality education(Singh et al., 2021). Indeed, sexuality education can have negative connotations, depending on how it is taught. For example, one report in Kenya suggests that it is important to think about personal values about sex because the syllabi tend to introduce sexuality in negative terms, such as only mentioning abstinence, and it reinforces negative associations with sexuality (UNESCO,2012). This report would illustrate that sexuality education itself can be a hiddencurriculum depending on how and in what ways students are taught.

On the other hand, hidden curricula may be challenged and revised, thanks to those who speak out about the shortcomings of existing curricula. For example, there is an ongoing debate among Kenyans about at what age sexuality education should be included in the curriculum. While at this stage the sexuality education curriculum has not changed as the protesters would like it to, there is always the possibility that the hidden curriculum will be revealed and revised as long as there are people who speak out and oppose the national curriculum as Apple (2002) claims. In this sense, Kenya's sexuality education could potentially be changed for the better.

2. Global education policy

Kenya's national policy suggests that it is actively trying to incorporate sex education. However, although sex education is incorporated into the policy, the reality is that it has not really spilled over to the teachers and students in the schools. There are many reports of inadequate sex education in school settings, pointing to the fact that education is not providing adequate information despite the fact that many students are seeking information. This chapter will examine why curriculum policy and the field, including schools and communities, are not in alignment.

One possible reason for the discrepancy between the government (curriculum) and the field (schools and communities) is the social perception of sex education. In Kenya, there is still a taboo against talking publicly about sex, and no matter how much it is included in the education policy, it might be difficult for school teachers and students to talk about it and learn more about it. There are cases that illustrates conservative points of views toward sex in Kenya, where national sex education campaigns have failed because they were criticized by students' parents and teachers. In 2013, the Kenyan government signed a declaration committing to scale up comprehensive rights-based sexuality education beginning in primary schools. However, the “Stop CSE” online campaign is opposed to the curriculum saying it “is one of the greatest assaults on the health and innocence of children” (EWTN, n.d.). This shows that there are a certain gap between the government and the communities regarding how they perceive sexuality education. Next, the cultural tradition of informal sex education might also matter. Although there are several tribes in Kenya and it is not possible to simplify, traditional sex education methods have been used in the tribes that make up a percentage of the population. In this method, parents act as teachers, so to speak, and provide sex education. In other words, sex education is provided in an informal manner, separate from the public education curriculum. There is little connection or affinity between public education and informal education at this stage, and it could be said that we are in a situation where the public education policy of the government and the sex education policy of the community are out of alignment.

Despite this clear discrepancy between community and policy, why is the government pushing for the curriculum? It could be said that there is pressure here from International Organizations and the international community. While it has been pointed out that the international guidelines developed by UNESCO play a major role in promoting CSE, they also put uniform pressure on countries to adopt CSE. This may be tied to the idea that reducing AIDS will increase human capital and lead to economic growth. In that sense, pressure toward countries should be more on countries that have a high rate of AIDS patients. Kenya is one of the countries that suffer from AIDS and receives a lot of funding from IOs. Therefore, it is possible that by having a policy that incorporates CSE education, they are trying to make it look good by making it appear that human capital is expected to increase.

CONCLUSION:

Topic paragraph
revised: As I became interested in sex education in Kenya and researched it, I realized that the reality of sex education in Kenya is passive compared to education in Europe. I was curious as to why the teaching of sex education varies, and upon further investigation, I found that it may be related to cultural practices and perceptions of sex. However, the national sex education curriculum itself was based on the CSE concept and did not have a strong passive component. When I wondered why the national policy was so European, I remembered the influence of IOs that I heard about in the globalized education policy class. In fact, when I looked into it, I found that UNESCO had created international guidelines for sex education. Overall, I would like to write a summary of the relationship between national policy, hidden curriculum, and the international community that I noticed as a result of this research of sex education in Kenya.

I would like to write an article about relationships education in Kanya because I personally feel a connection to that topic. I luckily got a chance of working in Kenya next Summer as an intern for a small NGO that aims to expand relationships and sex education to prevent unnecessary early marriage and to empower girls through education and other potentials that they could have been given. Kenya is considered as "the South", as we have discussed in the first lecture of this module, and I am from "the North" in that definition because I am Japanese. Thus, if I would be able to write an article that is as neutral as possible about relationships and sex education in Kenya, this would result in the respect to people in Kenya when working together as a member of the NGO this summer.

The CSE curriculum and its implementation in Kenya

revised topic: The hidden curriculum and pressure from international society, sexuality education in Kenya

Annotated bibliography
Final version

APHRC. (2017) Sexuality education in Kenya: New evidence from Three counties, Guttmacher Institute

Apple, M. W. (1990). Ideology and curriculum. New York, Routledge.

Cobbett, M., McLaughlin, C. and Kiragu, S. (2013) ‘Creating “participatory spaces”: involving children in planning sex education lessons in Kenya, Ghana and Swaziland’, Sex Education, 13(sup1), pp. S70–S83. doi:10.1080/14681811.2013.768527.

Dralega, C.A. (2008) ‘Examining women’s customary roles as sex educators through community media in Uganda’, Agenda, 22(77), pp. 91–99. doi:10.1080/10130950.2008.9674963.

Giroux, H.A. and Penna, A.N. (1979) ‘Social Education in the Classroom: The Dynamics of the Hidden Curriculum’, Theory & Research in Social Education, 7(1), pp. 21–42. doi:10.1080/00933104.1979.10506048.

Goldman, J.D.G. (2012) ‘A critical analysis of UNESCO’s International Technical Guidance on school-based education for puberty and sexuality’, Sex Education, 12(2), pp. 199–218. doi:10.1080/14681811.2011.609051.

Karanja, D.N. (2004) Students’ perception of sex education in public secondary schools of Kikuyu division, Kiambu district, Kenya. Thesis. Available at: http://erepository.uonbi.ac.ke/handle/11295/20439 (Accessed: 14 May 2022).

Keogh, S.C. et al. (2018) ‘Challenges to implementing national comprehensive sexuality education curricula in low- and middle-income countries: Case studies of Ghana, Kenya, Peru and Guatemala’, PLOS ONE, 13(7), p. e0200513. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0200513.

Keogh, S.C. et al. (2021) ‘Classroom implementation of national sexuality education curricula in four low- and middle-income countries’, Sex Education, 21(4), pp. 432–449. doi:10.1080/14681811.2020.1821180.

Kiragu, S. (2013) ‘Conceptualising children as sexual beings: pre-colonial sexuality education among the Gĩkũyũ of Kenya’, Sex Education, 13(5), pp. 585–596. doi:10.1080/14681811.2013.795888.

Magdalene, K. (2020) Bishops in Kenya Renew Campaign against Comprehensive Sexuality Education Commitment. Available at: https://www.aciafrica.org/news/1388/bishops-in-kenya-renew-campaign-against-comprehensive-sexuality-education-commitment#:~:text=Members%20of%20the%20Kenya%20Conference%20of%20Catholic%20Bishops%20(KCCB)%20have,ten%20thousand%20signatures%20from%20Kenyans. (Accessed: 14 May 2022).

Naidoo, L. (2016). ‘Hallucinations.’ The 15th Annual Ruth First Memorial Lecture, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, Available at: http://witsvuvuzela.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Hallucinations_RUTHFIRST_August2016_FINAL.pdf (Accessed 14 May 2022)

Obare, F. and Birungi, H. (2013) ‘Policy scripts and students’ realities regarding sexuality education in secondary schools in Kenya’, Sex Education, 13(6), pp. 615–629. doi:10.1080/14681811.2013.782535.

Ogolla, M.A. and Ondia, M. (2019) ‘Assessment of the Implementation of Comprehensive Sexuality Education in Kenya’, African Journal of Reproductive Health, 23(2). Available at: https://www.ajrh.info/index.php/ajrh/article/view/1813 (Accessed: 14 May 2022).

Rizvi, F. and Lingard, B. (2010) Globalizing education policy. London; New York, NY: Routledge.

Ruckert, A. (2006) ‘Towards an Inclusive-Neoliberal Regime of Development: From the Washington to the Post-Washington Consensus’, Labour, Capital and Society / Travail, capital et société, 39(1), pp. 34–67.

Sato, T. (2006) ‘A Study on the Meaning of Separated Learning and Integrated Learning between Male and Female Students in Sexuality Education in the Period of Puberty’, Mie University Education Science, 57, pp.171-183

Sexuality Education in Kenya: New Evidence from Three Counties (2017) Guttmacher Institute. Available at: https://www.guttmacher.org/fact-sheet/sexuality-education-kenya (Accessed: 7 April 2022).

Sidze, E.M. et al. (2017) ‘From Paper to Practice: Sexuality Education Policies and Their Implementation in Kenya’, p. 76.

Singh, A., Both, R. and Philpott, A. (2021) ‘“I tell them that sex is sweet at the right time” – A qualitative review of “pleasure gaps and opportunities” in sexuality education programmes in Ghana and Kenya’, Global Public Health, 16(5), pp. 788–800. doi:10.1080/17441692.2020.1809691.

Tashiro, M. et al. (2011) ‘The Actual Situation of Sexuality Education in Japan and its problems’, ''J. Saitama Univ. Fac. Educ''., 60(1):9-22

UNESCO. (2012) Sexuality Education: a 10-country review of school curricula in East and Southern Africa, UNESCO publishing

UNESCO. (2018) International technical guidance on sexuality education: an evidence-informed approach, UNESCO publishing

UNFPA. (2015) Sexuality Education: What Is Its Impact? Available at: https://eeca.unfpa.org/en/publications/sexuality-education-what-its-impact (Accessed: 13 May 2022).

UNICEF. (2020) HIV and AIDS Protecting children and adolescents from HIV and AIDS and providing care, Available at: https://www.unicef.org/kenya/hiv-and-aids#:~:text=Situation,15%2D24)%20remain%20concerning . (Accessed: 14 May 2022).

A critical analysis of UNESCO's International Technical Guidance on school-based education for puberty and sexuality

 * Key points
 * Mian claim: UNESCO's guidelines could have a significant impact on each country's policymaking and would contribute to the spread of better sexuality education more or less
 * evidence: literature review and the research on the Australian national curriculum related to sexuality education, based on UNESCO's guideline
 * Key concepts: International Organization, guidance, policymaking
 * weakness: does not necessarily mention Africa's situation in the article

Towards comprehensive sexuality education: a comparative analysis of the policy environment surrounding school-based sexuality education in Ghana, Peru, Kenya and Guatemala

 * Key points
 * Main claim: Our analysis shows that all four countries benefit from a policy environment that, if properly leveraged, could lead to a stronger implementation of CSE in schools. But each of the four countries are challenged by indivisual obstacles.
 * evidence: key informant interviews and recent regional reviews, the analysis focuses on seven policy-related levers that contribute to successful school-based sexuality education programmes. The levers cover policy development trends; current policy and legal frameworks for sexuality education; international commitments affecting CSE policies; the various actors involved in shaping CSE; and the partnerships and coalitions of actors that influence CSE policy.
 * Key concepts: Comprehensive sexuality education; policy; levers; barriers; Africa; Latin America
 * weaknesses: a limited number of countries examined; only focused on the levers related to education policy; levers of success are challenging to operationalise, evaluate and compare across countries; and information collected through interviews provides only a partial picture
 * More information
 * describe Kenya as a relatively earlier stage of implementation of CSE policy
 * in countries with higher HIV prevalence like Ghana and Kenya, the need for HIV prevention education was a driving force for the development of sexuality education beyond a biological perspective during the third period
 * In December 2013, ministers of Education and Health from 20 Eastern and Southern African (ESA) countries, including Kenya, signed the Ministerial Commitment on Comprehensive Sexuality Education and Sexual and Reproductive Health Services for Adolescents and Young People in Eastern and Southern Africa (Ministries of Education and Health 2013), which set specific targets for school-based CSE to be achieved in 2015 and 2020.
 * In Kenya, the Ministry of Education worked with several international agencies to adapt UNESCO’s International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education (UNESCO 2009) to the local context through a collaborative review process
 * In Peru and Guatemala, progressive civil society groups are more active and vocal than in Ghana and Kenya and have led strong national advocacy campaigns in favor of CSE in schools.
 * In Kenya, the government has involved a few national and local NGOs in policy processes, mainly through task forces. CSOs advocating for CSE recently formed a national consortium as part of the multi-country partnership ‘Right Here Right Now.
 * In Kenya and Ghana, conservative groups also oppose the inclusion of certain topics in CSE.
 * the Forum for African Women Educationalists and the Centre for the Study of Adolescence in Kenya) are advocating for sexual and reproductive health and rights, and several Kenyan youth organizations are represented in the national consortium Right Here Right Now.
 * However, youth-focused organizations have less public and media presence than in Latin American countries and are mostly involved with the health sector. Although they participate in policy development processes, they are not always consulted on implementation:
 * In Kenya, collaboration on CSE between government and civil society was lacking until the creation of the advocacy consortium ‘Right Here Right Now’. Although the National School Health Policy (2009) provides a framework for a multi-sectoral approach, this approach has not yet been defined between the education and the health sectors. The Ministry of Health manages the Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health Policy (on which CSE relies) and the Ministry of Education is in charge of curriculum development. There is a lack of collaboration and coordination between the two ministries in the development of CSE policies and curricula.
 * There is a wide gap between the policy at the Ministry of Education level and at the Ministry of Health level because the ASRH policy is more owned by the Ministry of Health […] For instance, the Ministry of Health, under that policy says that any young people, I think from fourteen years, have a right to access condoms, but when you go to schools, condoms are not allowed to be supplied in schools. (National NGO, Nairobi, Kenya)
 * In Kenya and Ghana, the weak presence of civil society organizations willing to actively promote CSE, and of youth-focused organizations, may also hinder progress.

Sexuality Education: A ten-country review of school curricula in East and Southern Africa

 * Key points
 * Main claims: It is important to think about personal values about sex because the syllabi tend to introduce sexuality in negative terms, such as only mentioning abstinence, and it reinforces negative associations with sexuality.
 * Evidence: several document reviews (chronologically)
 * Keywords: curriculum, Kenya, sex education
 * Limitations: Theory oriented

Challenges to implementing national comprehensive sexuality education curricula in low- and middle-income countries: Case studies of Ghana, Kenya, Peru and Guatemala
 * Key points
 * Main claims: While challenges were similar across countries, the strategies used to overcome them were different, and offer useful lessons to improve implementation for these and other low- and middle-income countries facing similar challenges.
 * Evidence: analyzes the challenges to the implementation of national CSE curricula in four LMICs: Ghana, Kenya, Peru and Guatemala. It presents qualitative findings from in-depth interviews with central and local government officials, civil society representatives, and community level stakeholders ranging from religious leaders to youth representatives. Qualitative findings are complemented by quantitative results from surveys of principals, teachers who teach CSE topics, and students aged 15–17 in a representative sample of 60–80 secondary schools distributed across three regions in each country, for a total of around 3000 students per country.
 * Keywords: challenges, sexuality education, curricula, low and middle-income countries, case study
 * Limitation: a limited number of case studies
 * More information
 * In Kenya, where CSE is mostly taught as part of the compulsory but non-examinable Life Skills curriculum (which teachers often skip to focus on core examinable subjects, according to several informants), a MoE representative suggested that moving CSE into examinable subjects could encourage teachers to pay attention to it:
 * Curriculum development should draw on a wider range of stakeholders, at both local and national levels, as for example in Kenya. This should include more consultation with young people (the prime beneficiaries of these programs), whose needs can also be diagnosed through local-level needs assessments [33, 43]. The importance of adapting curricula and materials to local contexts has been pointed out in other LMICs with diverse population

Education and risky sex in Africa: Unraveling the link between women’s education and reproductive health behaviors in Kenya
 * Key points
 * Main claims: gender inequality and lack of knowledge are likely to play a greater role in explaining the relationship between woman’s education and sex-related behaviors in sub-Saharan Africa than they do in more industrialized nations, where social capital explanations may have more explanatory power
 * Evidence: research reviews
 * Keywords: Africa, Risky sex, Sexual intercourse, Women, Education, Kenya, HIV/AIDS, Gender, Condoms, Family planning, Knowledge, Sub-Saharan Africa
 * Limitations: limited information


 * More infromation
 * Beginning in November 1999, the first intensive information campaign started in Kenya (Shanya, 2005), while that same year the government established a national curriculum on HIV/AIDS education to reach children in primary school (Duflo et al., 2006).
 * better educated women have a later age at first sex, fewer sex partners, are more likely to know their sex partner, and are more likely to use condoms within and outside of a marital relationship.
 * More importantly, we found that more educated women appear to have greater ease in discussing family planning issues with their husbands and, as a result, are more likely to use condoms.

Education and HIV/AIDS Prevention: Evidence from a randomized evaluation in Western Kenya

 * Key points
 * Main claims: Reducing the cost of education by paying for school uniforms reduced dropout rates, teen marriage, and childbearing as girls in schools where free uniforms were provided are 1.5 percentage points less likely to have started childbearing.
 * Evidence: a randomized evaluation comparing three school-based HIV/AIDS interventions in Kenya: 1) training teachers in the Kenyan Government’s HIV/AIDS-education curriculum; 2) encouraging students to debate the role of condoms and to write essays on how to protect themselves against HIV/AIDS; and 3) reducing the cost of education.  Our primary measure of the effectiveness of these interventions is teenage childbearing
 * Keywords: HIV/AIDS prevention; school; Africa; Kenya; Youth; developing countries
 * Limitations: the best measure of the effect of the program would be biomarkers – tests for HIV infection or other STDs, but this research measured the rate of childbearing


 * More information
 * After two years, girls in schools where teachers had been trained were more likely to be married in the event of a pregnancy. The program had little other impact on students’ knowledge, attitudes, and behavior, or on the incidence of teen childbearing.
 * The condom debates and essays increased practical knowledge and self-reported use of condoms without increasing self-reported sexual activity.
 * Reducing the cost of education by paying for school uniforms reduced dropout rates, teen marriage, and childbearing.

Assessment of the Implementation of Comprehensive Sexuality Education in Kenya

 * Key points
 * Main claims: The delivery of CSE is severely inhibited by lack of training, non-inclusion of CSE in the curriculum, inadequate time allocation for CSE lessons, and lack of teaching resources.
 * Evidence: 170 teachers in 11 secondary schools in Kisumu central sub-county, Kenya. Purposive and simple random sampling techniques were used. Quantitative data was collected using a self- administered questionnaire and an observation checklist, while qualitative data was collected through key informant interviews using a semi-structured interview guide. Quantitative data was analyzed using SPSS version 21.
 * Keywords: Comprehensive sexuality education, awareness, perceptions, delivery, teachers, Kenya
 * Limitations: not guaranteed to be representative enough and not generalizable because the research was conducted on a small sample size that was restricted to 170 teachers

school realted reading
Policy scripts and students' realities regarding sexuality education in secondary schools in Kenya
 * Key points
 * Main claims: it is important to consider the views and experiences of students who are the intended beneficiaries of such education, because students seem to need more comprehensive sexuality education
 * Evidence: a review of the health and education sector policy documents as well as data from self-administered questionnaires with 3624 male and female students from eight secondary schools in Nairobi
 * Keywords: sexual and reproductive health, sexuality education, policystudents' views and experiences, Kenya
 * limitation: only in an urban setting, and the use of self-administered questionnaires and drop boxes, which did not allow for probing for additional information or detail,
 * More information
 * written in "Towards comprehensive sexuality education" and criticized as this article lacks a cross-country perspective.

From Paper to Practice: Sexuality Education Policies and Their Implementation in Kenya
 * Key points
 * Main claims: More concrete policy by the government and support for teachers will enable students to learn sexuality education more comprehensively.
 * Evidence: Through comprehensive analysis of policies and curricula regarding sexuality education in Kenya and their implementation in secondary schools, with a focus on three geographically and ethnically diverse counties: Homa Bay, Mombasa, and Nairobi.
 * Keywords: sexuality education in Kenya, the government policy, teachers' role, classroom, students
 * Limitations: The measure we developed addresses only the range of topics taught, not other essential components that may determine the comprehensiveness of a sexuality education program, such as integration of youth and community engagement into curriculum development


 * Based on the article "Towards comprehensive sexuality education"

Creating ‘participatory spaces’: involving children in planning sex education lessons in Kenya, Ghana and Swaziland
 * Key points
 * Main claims: Sexuality education in African contexts is riddled with socio-cultural complexity, but pupils were able to make their voices heard at many points in these spaces and powerful moments of dialogue did exist with some of the adults undergoing significant changes of opinion throughout the process.
 * Evidence: data from an action research project in Kenya, Ghana and Swaziland
 * Keywords: Africa; consulting pupils, dialogue, HIV/AIDS,
 * Limitations: the results only applies to a certain context
 * More information
 * In Kenya, pupils' opinions were heard in the CDGs from the beginning of the year.
 * One of the reasons that pupils were able to make their opinions heard from the beginning in the Kenyan schools was the role played by the researcher in facilitating this. For example: ‘you're not going to get into trouble for having an opinion. Just be open and say what you think, is that alright?’ or ‘Wambui, you haven't said anything yet, what would you like to see taught in class?’
 * However, their interventions gradually led asking the pupils' opinions to become a norm within the groups and in later CDGs, the teachers took responsibility for this, making researcher intervention largely unnecessary. Critics of participation have pointed to the way in which facilitators exercise power by ‘governing’ what can be said within projects (Kothari 2001; Kapoor 2005). Yet, Kesby's (2005, 2007) response that such governance can be a crucial means of enabling social unequals to move closer to participating ‘as if’ they are equals seems to have great relevance to our data. In our case, the governance employed by the researcher did seem to enable equal participation within the facilitated space of the CDG.

Students' perception of sex education in public secondary schools of Kikuyu division, Kiambu district, Kenya

 * key points
 * Main claims: It turned out that students regardless of their gender differene get information of sexuality educatioin more from peers and media, than school curriculum
 * Evidence: students questionnaires, and descriptive and inferential statistics were used for the analysis of data obtained. In particular, descriptive statistics used included frequencies, percentages, and means while the inferential statistic used was the t-test.
 * Keywords: school education, students' perception, Kenya, media, and peers
 * limitations: limited number of school,
 * More information
 * sought to identify students' sources of knowledge in sex education, the perceptions of sex education held by students from various socio-cultural backgrounds and finally assess if boys and girls differed in their perception of sex education The literature reviewed gave remarkable insights into the concept of perception
 * students were not adequately exposed to an organized school based sex education and that though some aspects of sex education were being taught in carrier subjects, like biology and SEE, the students got the bulk of sex information from other sources apart from the school.
 * peers and media were identified as the most popular source of sex information, in comparison to parents, church and teachers.
 * different socio-cultural backgrounds and gender difference were not responsible for difference in perception, towards of sex education

Classroom implementation of national sexuality education curricula in four low- and middle-income countries

 * Key points
 * Main claims: Increasing teacher training and distributing comprehensive CSE materials responsive to adolescents’ needs remain priorities in all coa untries.
 * Evidence: analysed challenges to the implementation of national CSE curricula in schools in Ghana, Kenya, Peru and Guatemala, based on surveys of secondary school principals, teachers and students aged 15–17 years, and indepth interviews with central and local government, NGOs and youth organisations
 * Keywords: Sexuality education; CSE; Ghana; Kenya; Guatemala; Peru
 * Limitations: restricted the sample of schools to three regions in each country

Lessons learned from a decade implementing Comprehensive Sexuality Education in resource poor settings: The World Starts With Me

 * Key points
 * Main claims: school ownership of programs is a key requirement for sustainability and the context of school-based sexuality education needs as much attention as the programs themselves.
 * Evidence: a decade’s experience in implementing CSE (The world starts with me) in 11 countries in Africa and Asia, including Kenya
 * Keywords: Comprehensive Sexuality Education; critical pedagogy; whole school approach; Africa; Asia
 * Limitation: educational programs promoting behaviours and attitudes where the application is strongly hampered by disabling normative, cultural and political environments, notably in the global South

Examining women's customary roles as sex educators through community media in Uganda

 * Key points
 * Main claims: Through the program Ssenga, Uganda elderly women are successfully educated young women with sexuality knowledge, while this program upholds stereotypes that have traditionally restrained women from breaking out of their traditional domestic roles after all.
 * Evidence: Structured interviews were carried out in late 2007 with the main informants: community members, Ssengas and the Community Multimedia Centre (CMC) manager
 * Keywords: edutainment, sex, culture, community radio, Uganda
 * Limitations: limited area was examined through this research


 * More information
 * The programme, which is referred to as Ssenga (which refers to paternal aunts), hosts ‘elderly’ women who ‘educate’ young women about their traditional/cultural roles. These duties and responsibilities revolve around the household: child bearing, housekeeping and, most importantly, sex education and learning the traditional duties of a wife.
 * In Nakaseke, which is a Ganda village, the Ssenga radio programme is a mix of change and conservation, as it facilitates and reinforces patriarchal power, while at the same time parodying it
 * In this programme, heavily laden with symbolism and metaphors, the Ssenga often discusses family issues, ranging from sex education, to cleanliness in the home, children’s upbringing, puberty as well as the role of men and women in the home. However, the bulk of the Ssenga programme is concerned with the sexual preparation of young girls for marriage (Tamale, 2005; Nyiraneza, 2006).
 * The programme also includes a nurse who can give medical advice on sexuality-related issues, such as sexually transmitted infections. The combination of traditional Ssenga and medical nurse increased the programme’s popularity. It offered a mixture of advice and counselling, folk culture, local language and story telling around issues of morality and cleanliness.

Conceptualising children as sexual beings: pre-colonial sexuality education among the Gĩkũyũ of Kenya

 * Key points
 * Main claims: open dialogue within school communities can be the first step towards designing an appropriate sexuality education curriculum that takes intoaccount local culture and histories as well as emerging concerns. In sexuality education among the Gikuyu, their ‘parents’ teaches children how to have sex, who had their guardians as confidants for life, and thus a parent to always talk to.
 * Evidence: oral history accounts elicited from 25 Gı˜ku˜yu˜ elders in Kenya
 * Keywords: Gı˜ku˜yu˜; traditional sexuality; oral history; children; sex education
 * Limitations:
 * More information
 * The Gĩkũyũ are Kenya's largest ethnic community, numbering about 6 million people, or 21% of the Kenyan population
 * There are several intertwining dynamics that can be teased out from elders' descriptions of how they were prepared for sex and also how they practised it before marriage.
 * First, there is a double bind, whereby even though they could control the time and frequency of ngweko and had the freedom to choose their partner, they had to do so under tightly controlled societal rules and expectations that allowed for no penetration.
 * Second, there is an issue of accountability. Arguably, young people felt accountable to their community and to each other when they strived not to break the rule of no penetration. The motivation here may be deeper than just not wanting to be embarrassed, break a taboo or become a pariah; it may be more intrinsic and loyal, perhaps stemming from the moral education shared around the fire when they were children.
 * Third, young people were each other's brothers-keepers and peer educators as shown when the girls would trust each other to leave when one said thiomo if the mumbani erred, and also when the boys were inducted into ngweko by the older youth.
 * Fourth, Gĩkũyũ pedagogy used concrete examples and trusted young people with this experience. There was trust from the elders when they did ‘live’ sex, they trusted that their children had understood the instruction they had been given during the 4-week healing period and would be able to handle sex with maturity and within the set confines

 'Point of Order, Mr. Speaker: African Women Claiming Their Space in Parliament 
 * Key points
 * Main claims: The struggle for women's emancipation in African politics is a difficult one partly because of historical context, but patriarchy is not entirely constraining; it has some elements that can be exploited by women to improve their standing.
 * Evidence: The information on Ugandan women parliamentarians come from notes I made from observations in the National Assembly, and interviews with legislators - 40 women, and 15 men.
 * Keywords: patriarchy, women in parliament
 * Limitation: the limited region

Reviewed Work: When Hens Begin to Crow: Gender and Parliamentary Politics in Uganda

 * Key points
 * Man claims: Women tend to have difficulty getting into parliamentary politics because of their gender
 * Evidence: By following female politicians through their initial entry into politics, to their campaigns for election, into Parliament, and on to politicians' home districts.
 * Keywords: women in parliament, Uganda, sexuality, gender
 * limitation: the limited number of sampling

The right to culture and the culture of rights: a critical perspective on women’s sexual rights in Africa

 * key points
 * Main claims: Radical transformation of women’s sexuality can happen within culture. And we women must not be shy to be heard speaking out in support of culture
 * Evidence: parallel research on Gender, Law and Sexuality
 * Keywords: African women, African feminism, Banjul Charter, culture, relativism, rights, sexuality, universalism
 * limitation: It is more on theory than its implement

Explaining the non-governmental organization (NGO) boom: the case of HIV/AIDS NGOs in Kenya

 * Key points
 * Main claims: This article contributes to the understanding of civil society development in Kenya by demonstrating that both international and domestic factors worked together to lay the groundwork for Kenya's active community of HIV/AIDS NGOs.
 * Evidence: Literature reviews
 * Keywords: Kenya, East Africa, NGOs, HIV/AIDS, civil society
 * Limitation: limited date
 * More information
 * Poor government response to HIV/AIDS and the creation of space for NGO sector growth

Infunkutu-with-cover-page-v2.pdf (d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net)

Infunkutu—the Bemba Sexual Dance as Women’s Sexual Agency

‘I tell them that sex is sweet at the right time’ – A qualitative review of ‘pleasure gaps and opportunities’ in sexuality education programmes in Ghana and Kenya

 * Key points
 * Main claims: Findings reveal possibilities of sex-positivity in restrictive contexts, illustrating ways for sexuality education to become more sex-positive and pleasure inclusive.
 * Evidence: The Pleasure Project and Rutgers, with GH SRHR Alliance (Ghana) and SRHR Alliance (Kenya), conducted a qualitative pilot study of sexuality education under the Get Up Speak Out programme, analysing the extent to which they included sex-positive content, with recommendations to enhance sex-positivity. Data were collected through interviews with facilitators, focus group discussions with learners, observation of sessions, and curricula content analysis.
 * Keywords: Pleasure; sex-positive; Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE); qualitative study; Global South
 * Limitation: The time allocated for data collection was not enough to ensure that further respondents could be sought based on the information received
 * More information
 * educators needing more support to speak out comfortably about sexuality, young people not getting enough information and seeking information elsewhere – including turning to porn – and how some CSE educators are able to provide sex-positive education but they are swimming against the tide.
 * Young people are certainly demanding more open, honest and explicit information as seen from the findings, where, when asked what more they would like to learn about, FGD respondents listed topics like masturbation, sex (what it feels like), contraception and condoms, porn, and relationships.