Catholic Bishops in Kenya have censured the Ministry of Education against the alleged introduction of family planning education in place of sexual abstinence in some Grade 7 textbooks.
The clerics stated that the introduction of family planning and the use of contraceptives for young learners will sexualise the learning environment and be the biggest contributor to the high rates of teenage pregnancies and abortion.
In a statement, Tuesday, at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa, the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops chairman Paul Njiru said such educational content will only encourage the use of contraception among learners.
"Upon sampling a few books targeted at teaching Grade 7 learners, we have noted a worrying trend in terms of content," Njiru said.
"For instance, looking at the Grade 7 learners book titled "Top Scholar Health Education" on page 127 and the Grade 7 teachers guide titled "Health Education In Action" on page 153, the content is both explicit and inappropriate for learners at Grade 7.
"We observe that the said content is against the Ministry of Education Policy that children should not be exposed to such explicit content."
Commission For Education and Religious Education vice chancellor bishop Mark Kadima also said comprehensive sex education doesn't brighten any child's future, but it exposes them to the disruption from the widely celebrated education goals.
"While acknowledging the important role that the Ministry of Education plays in protecting children from age-inappropriate content, we urge that the ministry removes with speed and initiates the removal of sub-strand 7.2 on reproductive health from all learning materials and withdrawal of the mentioned books and any other book in the market that contains similar content," he said.
Kadima asked all schools and parents to remain vigilant and ensure that the course books they are using do not contain any inappropriate reproductive health content.
"As schools open for the third term when this strand is supposed to be taught, we advise the teachers to pluck all the pages containing reproductive health content and entirely withdraw the books containing this strand from their shelves so that learners do not access any inappropriate content," he added.
Njiru asked the Ministry of Education to immediately recall the inclusion of the reproductive health strand in all Grade 7 books.
