Schooling

This study - conducted with adolescent girls between the ages 13 - 17 - suggests that efforts to address gender based violence against girls are not a priority. Findings from 17 focus group discussions with adolescent girls at nine Gauteng schools suggest that minimal to no intervention efforts are underway at schools or in communities; participants appeared frustrated and despondent at the lack of services available to them. This lack of services is startling in light of findings from this study which highlights a disturbing prevalence of sexual harassment at school as well as an alarmingly high incidence of physical and sexual violence in the lives of adolescent girls.

The aim of this study was to assess secondary school teachers' comfort in teaching adolescents about sexuality and HIV/AIDS, behavioral control and outcome beliefs about HIV/AIDS education and teacher knowledge about HIV/AIDS. The sample consisted of 54 male (35.6%) and 96 female (64.4%) secondary school teachers who were mostly life stkills teachers, from 150 schools across South Africa. Findings suggest that most secondary school teachers, are knowledgeable about AIDS, feel moderately comfortable teaching students about AIDS-related topics, have the knowledge and ability to teach about HIV/AIDS, but lack some material and community support. Teacher in-service training was found to have a significant impact on perceived behavioral control of HIV/AIDS education and HIV/AIDS knowledge.

Teenage pregnancy has militated against the educational success of girls in South Africa. Statistics show that four out of ten girls become pregnant overall at least once before age 20. Education is important for these girls in order to break the poverty cycle in which most of them are trapped. Though the girls are allowed to return to school after becoming mothers, they face many challenges in trying to balance motherhood and the demands of schooling. The aim of this study was to find out how teen mothers cope with schooling, hence how much support is rendered to them. A qualitative research approach was used to understand the social phenomena of teenage mothers as learners. The result of the research showed that teen mothers in Cape Town receive insufficient support (physically and emotionally) and the consequence in that many quit or do not succeed with schooling.