Africa-Press – Tanzania. THE St Augustine University of Tanzania (SAUT) has introduced an online programme that will broaden students’ knowledge on sexual transmitted infections (STI).
The programme dubbed ‘Integrated Comprehensive Sexuality Education, HIV and Gender Based Violence’ was launched on Friday by Higher Education Director, Dr Kennedy Hosea.
The twelve-month pilot project which started to be implemented on January this year from January is expected to end on December this year.
The project is being implemented jointly by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and International Labour Organisation (ILO) at the University of Dar es Salaam, University of Iringa (UoI) and SAUT.
According to Dr Kennedy, the programme has been introduced after stakeholders learnt that STIs knowledge in higher learning institutions is below 50 per cent, a situation that put youths in high risk of contracting the diseases.
“Most youths have been getting unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases simply because they are not aware of how they can prevent themselves from both pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases,” he said.
According to him, some students join higher education institutions at a very tender age, from 18 years, without enough knowledge on STIs, and as a result they fall victims.
Commenting, UNESCO Programmes Officer, Mr Mathias Herman said that an online course has been introduced after stakeholders conducted a ‘Situational Analysis on the Status of Sexual and Reproductive Health of Students in Tertiary Institutions in the SADC Region’ survey in 2018, whose results showed that youths were at risk of acquiring STIs due to limited knowledge.
For instance, he said, researchers found that use of condom was down while a good number of students were already in sexual relationships, some of them even practicing multiple partner affairs.
“We also found many of them who face gender violence, including male students who were forced by females to go for sexual intercourse. The most vulnerable in all aspects of GBV were the first year students,” he said.
According to him, the courses will also involve financial management issues, after the survey showed that some students, especially female students, used to practice ‘semester marriages’, only to seek financial support.
The survey also indicated that others practiced intergenerational sexual relationships (young female students having affairs with elders), for financial relief, said Mr Herman. Launching the project, the SAUT Deputy Vice Chancellor for Administration and Financ e, Prof George Masanja called on students to apply for the course so that they can broaden their knowledge on STIs.
He also advised students to go for behavior change.
