04 Sep 2013

The Ministry of Education and Skills Development has partnered with United States of America Embassy to allow students to discuss important issues they are most comfortable with through Facebook.

A press release from the US Embassy states that the Facebook campaign primarily targets students aged 10 to 19.

It aims to educate young people about the findings in the First Botswana Youth Risk Behavioural Surveillance Survey in order to provide a non-traditional platform for discussion around risky behaviour and also to gain feedback on ideas and strategies for addressing issues found in the survey. 

Throughout the month of September, the release says, the ministry and US Embassy will post findings from the survey on their Facebook pages to provoke discussion from students. It also says new topic will be introduced each Tuesday followed by a series of questions to get the conversation going. 

The survey, which was conducted by the ministry with support from the US government, is reportedly the first of its kind in Botswana and yielded ground-breaking information, shedding light on some cases for the first time regarding real challenges confronting today’s youth. The release states that the survey data gives Botswana new information about the threat of violence and rape against young people, drug and alcohol abuse as well as sexual behaviour. 

It states that some key findings of the survey indicate that 45 per cent of students reported having thought about committing abuse by teachers or family members and 17 per cent of girls who have had sex reported that rape was their first sexual experience. 

Other key findings, it says, show that 16 per cent of girls reported having been forced to have sexual intercourse during the 12 months prior to the survey. Among boys, the survey shows that 10 per cent of those who have had sex, reported that rape was their first sexual experience while another 10 per cent reported having been forced to have sexual intercourse during the 12 months prior to the survey. ENDS