From July 24 to 27 inKoudougou, Burkina Faso's national education and literacy authorities, through the Directorate General forEducationalResearch and Pedagogical Innovation, organized ateacher training workshop in partnership withEquipop. Teacherswill begin experimenting in the early years of primary school with the reform of basic educationcurriculacovering Female Genital Mutilation(FGM), Sexualand ReproductiveHealth(SRH), and Child Marriage(CM).
The workshop brought together 56teachersfromsix regions of Burkina Faso(the Centre, Boucle duMouhoun,Haut-Bassin, East, Central Plateau, and Sahel regions). During these four days of training and reflection,teachersweretrainedon the content ofFGM,ME, andSRH, including:
[unordered_list]- The description of the anatomy of the external and internal organs of men and women,
- The consequencesofFGM,
- Therelationship between female genital mutilation and human rights
- Actionsto promote the elimination ofFGMin Burkina Faso
- Thesituation of child marriage at the international and national levels, as well as its sociocultural and economic foundations, and its effects on education, health, the economy, etc.
Following this, theteachersfocusedon developing teaching materials to be used in delivering the course modules.
Burkina Faso's decision to experiment with comprehensive sexuality education is justified by the fact that many traditional practices, once considered values, are now considered human rights violations. Added to this is a context marked by unwanted early pregnancies, especially in schools, which constitute an obstacle to girls' education. Those subjected to these traditional practices are thus deprived of their right to enjoy good psychological and mental health, which is absolutely necessary for harmonious development.
Equipop is more committed than ever to strengtheningteachers'capacities and ensuring that comprehensive sexuality education modules are widely integrated intolearner trainingcurricula. It intends to continue its advocacy and citizen monitoring efforts to ensure that the national authorities' commitment is fulfilled by the start of the 2018-2019 school year.
