The impact of the responsibility of teachers regarding reproductive healthcare to teenage learners

Abstract

The Life Orientation subject at school is meant to equip learners with important life skills and prepare them to be responsible adults that will contribute positively to the economy of the country. One of such skills is to avoid pregnancy while being a learner and therefore needs information about sex and sexuality. The school curriculum should thus include the subject Reproductive Health Care and the teachers be allowed the responsibility to teach the subject. Teenage girls who become pregnant as learners are in many times compelled to drop out of school to raise the child as it becomes challenging to cope with studies and looking after the baby. The study used a qualitative exploratory research design aimed to determine the impact of the responsibility of teachers regarding reproductive healthcare to teenage learners.  The objectives were to, explore the knowledge of school teachers with regard to reproductive healthcare. To explore and describe the views of the teachers with regard to their responsibility to teach the reproductive healthcare topic to teenage girls. Lastly, to develop guidelines for schools to assist teachers regarding their responsibility to teach the reproductive healthcare topic to teenage girls. The article will report on the first two objectives only. In-depth focus group interviews were conducted with twenty willing participants and a narrative questionnaire was completed. The data analysis method used was the spiral method which follows the process of coding and categorising transcribed data. The process allows data to be organised and setting it for several times so as to get a sense of the whole. identifying general categories and themes of the data is the next step followed by integrating and summarising the data to get a response to the research question. Data analysis results were teachers who felt burdened with the responsibility. Some had a positive opinion of the subject as part of the school curriculum and thus the need for stakeholder collaboration for their assistance. In conclusion, teachers are in need of empowerment for the responsibility to teach reproductive healthcare. (Afr J Reprod Health 2022; 26[4]: 82-91).