Curriculum builders are reviewing complete sexuality training (CSE) in colleges to make it extra age-appropriate, inclusive and efficient as teenage pregnancies stay a rising concern.
The Rwanda Fundamental Training Board (REB) says the evaluate will strengthen the supply of CSE and make sure that learners, together with these with disabilities, obtain correct and related details about their our bodies, relationships, sexual and reproductive well being, rights and private security.
Curriculum builders from key authorities establishments, associate organisations and civil society teams are being urged to strengthen their technical expertise in inclusive and gender-transformative CSE design, evaluate present toolkits and instructor guides, determine gaps affecting learners with disabilities and develop suggestions for improved implementation.
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The train is going down amid considerations over the continued rise in teenage pregnancies.
Janvier Ntibizerwa, a curriculum specialist at REB chargeable for coaching faculty leaders and lecturers to ship CSE, stated an evaluation confirmed that teenage being pregnant stays a significant problem.
“Teenage being pregnant elevated from 5% to eight% in 2025. The three% improve was attributable to a spike throughout Covid-19 when kids have been in communities. The second issue is misinformation unfold on social media about sexuality. Due to this fact, kids turn into inquisitive about what can deteriorate them,” he stated.
In keeping with the Rwanda Demographic and Well being Survey (RDHS7), the best being pregnant fee was recorded amongst adolescent ladies aged 15 to 19.
Ntibizerwa stated the federal government is contemplating digital platforms as one other method of reaching adolescents with correct info.
“We’ve got considered digitising sexuality training in order that adolescents can entry correct details about sexuality training on social media platforms similar to TikTok and others,” he stated.
He additionally referred to as for nearer coordination between authorities establishments, non-governmental organisations, mother and father and different stakeholders to deal with teenage being pregnant.
A capacity-building programme has been designed for 40 curriculum builders specializing in inclusive CSE, in addition to faculty violence prevention curricula and programmes that cater for all learners, together with these with disabilities.
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The continuing evaluate and mapping train is analyzing present CSE toolkits, instructor guides and associated assets. It’s assessing which supplies are supposed for main, lower-secondary and upper-secondary training, their approval standing, possession and availability.
The evaluate can also be figuring out gaps in curriculum design, instructor preparation and school-level implementation.
It would study how CSE can contribute to stopping sexual violence, bullying, harassment, dangerous gender norms, abuse and different types of faculty violence.
Curriculum builders are additionally assessing the necessity for age-appropriate content material, clear studying outcomes, instructor steering, evaluation approaches and stronger coordination amongst training, well being and little one safety establishments.
“We’ve got to work collectively to organize curricula and make clear what is finished at college and what’s performed at house. There’s a function for colleges and fogeys,” Ntibizerwa stated.
CSE is built-in as one of many eight cross-cutting points within the competence-based curriculum.
It covers sexual and reproductive well being, human progress, relationships, gender, and prevention of HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infections.
In main colleges, it’s built-in into Science and Elementary Expertise and Social Research.
Ntibizerwa stated instructor capacity-building is deliberate for September, partly due to workers turnover.
“Some lecturers have left, whereas there are new lecturers who want to know Complete Sexuality Training, which is built-in into the competence-based curriculum in main colleges, TVET colleges and others,” he stated.
20,000-24,000 births yearly
The dimensions of teenage being pregnant stays a priority, with an evaluation of births to adolescent ladies over the previous decade exhibiting that between 20,000 and 24,000 infants are born to teenage moms every year.
Jacques Nsengiyumva, Government Director of the Rwanda Girls Adolescent and Youngster Well being Initiative (RWACHI), stated the annual quantity is equal to the inhabitants of between one and two sectors. Over a decade, he stated, the determine is similar to the inhabitants of two to 3 districts.
He stated some kids start partaking in sexual activity as early as age 10 and subsequently turn into pregnant.
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The 2023 Rwanda Very important Statistics Report, printed by the Nationwide Institute of Statistics of Rwanda, recorded 102 births in 2022 to kids aged 10 to 14 and 75 births in the identical age group in 2023.
Teenage being pregnant can also be linked to elevated dangers of HIV and different sexually transmitted infections, significantly the place sexual activity is unprotected.
The implications embrace faculty dropout, maternal well being dangers, gender inequality and diminished financial alternatives for younger ladies.
Nsengiyumva stated 8.1% of ladies aged 15 to 19 had been pregnant. The proportion was increased amongst ladies whose highest instructional attainment was main training, at 12.7%, in contrast with 3.8% amongst those that had attained secondary training.
“We’ve got to work collectively to cut back faculty dropouts as a result of there may be an Training For All programme. Continued consideration is required to make sure that Complete Sexuality Training in colleges is age-appropriate, sensible, inclusive and constantly applied in colleges,” he stated.
He stated extra work is required to enhance the implementation of the present curriculum.
“The secondary faculty curriculum was reviewed and accepted. There’s one other curriculum for main faculty being reviewed, to which we’re contributing our concepts. We’re conducting an evaluation to look at present curricula, these underneath growth, and the place enhancements are wanted to deal with challenges,” he stated.
Consultants have referred to as for higher scrutiny of the standard, timing, accessibility and effectiveness of CSE, alongside improved entry to adolescent sexual and reproductive well being info and providers.
Dr Ben Alexandre Mpozembizi, coordinator of the Our Rights, Our Lives, Our Future challenge at UNESCO Rwanda, stated misinformation on social media was turning into one other problem.
“Our aim is to equip younger individuals with correct data about reproductive well being, HIV prevention and sexual violence to allow them to make knowledgeable decisions,” he stated, stressing the significance of open communication between mother and father and kids.
Activists have additionally welcomed Legislation No. 026/2025 regulating healthcare providers, which lowered the minimal age for unbiased entry to healthcare from 18 to fifteen.
The change permits adolescents to hunt sexual and reproductive well being providers, together with fashionable contraceptives.
Activists have referred to as for stronger youth-friendly providers, improved CSE in colleges, higher parent-child communication, expanded community-based prevention programmes and stronger monitoring techniques.
In addition they advocate higher assist for the reintegration of pregnant adolescents into training and society.
