Should condoms be distributed in schools?

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Many years ago an elderly woman approached me and gave me some condoms. I was a teacher in Tsholotsho, in rural Matabeleland then. I didn’t think much of it then, but I have been thinking a lot about it since the reckless talk by the National Aids Council about giving condoms to school kids started. According to them, children are having sex anyway so it is best to provide them with ‘protection’. Does the National Aids Council realize that children rarely have sex amongst themselves: If a twelve year old is having sex it is with an adult and this mainly applies to girls? What fifteen year old girl would say to a thirty year old guy’ ‘use this condom I got from my teacher’?

The woman who gave me condoms in Tsholotsho many years ago was old enough to be my mother, she knew me very well and she knew my girlfriend; a local girl very well. She could have sat us down and talked to us if she had any concerns. My girlfriend was still under twenty then and we were abstaining. I was also young, but mature enough to dismiss the condoms as something we didn’t need. But that elderly woman made an error of judgment: She assumed we were having sex and we needed condoms. She relegated sex to the level of say chewing gum. Her logic was; they can have sex, as long as they are using condoms its okay. How ridiculous!

The same stupid approach is being used by those calling for condoms to be given to school children: We know they are having sex, so they might as well be ‘safe’. How we all wish life was that simple. Have we really thought about the circumstances under which these kids have sex and thought that condoms will be used under those circumstances? Do we realize that there is a huge percentage of kids who do not indulge in sex because we have told them it is wrong to have sex and they believe us or are scared of us and it has worked until someone delivers boxes of condoms to schools and with it the message that whatever parents say at home is bullshit. Have we really thought about what a condom in hand will do to the kid who is abstaining? Have we thought of the bathroom conversations that will go something like; ‘Have you used your condoms yet?’. And how several kids who would have rather abstained will rush to find sexual partners so that they will be cool amongst peers. I can hear someone saying, ‘But they will be using condoms, so it’s okay’.

No, it’s not okay. If you are expecting school children to use condoms correctly and consistently when adults are failing to do so, then you are delusional. And have we thought of the emotional implications of thousands of school kids having premature sex?

And who exactly will be distributing these condoms? The teachers I suppose. The same adolescent, mass produced teachers who are on a daily basis having sex with school girls in their offices and storerooms. And the elderly teachers are not exempt from this: I know of forty year old teachers who abuse schoolgirls on daily basis and nothing happens to them. Or perhaps the logic is that the school teachers can now have ‘protected’ sex with school girls.

And where are the parents in all this? I have not heard of any consultative meetings with parents to get their view on what they think about the whole charade. Let’s not get carried away with the love for donor money and forget that at some point we have to examine who we really are and what we want as a people. If seriously this is the path Zimbabwe wants to travel down, then I might seriously consider moving to a Muslim country.