INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Sex education which is sometimes called sexuality education or

sex and relationship education is the process of acquiring information

and forming attitudes and beliefs about sex sexual identity relationships

and intimacy (Adunola A. 2005). Sex education is also about

developing young people’s skills so that they make informed choices

about their behaviour and feel confident and competent about acting on

these choices (Adepoju 2005). Therefore sex education practices

involves the individuals’

● Information/knowledge about sexual relationships

● Attitudes values and insights towards sex

● Relationships and interpersonal skills between opposite sexes

● Responsibility for sexual behaviours (Kamla-Raj 2008).

The importance of sex education among others includes

● It provides its beneficiaries with accurate information about human

sexuality including growth and development human reproduction

anatomy physiology masturbation family life pregnancy

childbirth parenthood sexual response sexual orientation

contraception abortion sexual abuse HIV/AIDS and other

sexually transmitted diseases.

● It provides opportunities for individuals to question explore and

assess their sexual attitudes in order to develop their own values

to enhance self-esteem and to develop insights concerning

relationships with members of both sexes and understand their

obligations and responsibilities to others.

● It promotes development of interpersonal skills including

communication decision-making assertiveness and refusal skills

as well as the ability to create satisfying relationships. It enables

individuals to fully understand their sexuality and help them

develop the capacity for caring supportive non-coercive and

mutually pleasurable and sexual relationships.

● It offers exercise of responsibility regarding sexual relationships

including addressing abstinence how to resist pressures to

become prematurely involved in sexual intercourse and

encouraging the use of contraception and other sexual health

measures (Madunagu B. 2006).

Sex education is a central component of programmes designed to

reduce the prevalence of sexually related medical problems including

teenage pregnancies sexually transmitted diseases including HIV

infection and sexual abuse. Owing to the numerous importance of sex

education the government have made several efforts towards the

provision of sex education to the youths. Several initiatives have over

the years been put in place in order to address the issues and problems

of sexuality education by the government. These include:

● Introduction and institutionalization of population education at the

secondary level of the education system which was considered as

a potential way of tackling the problem of rapid population growth

and its consequences for socio-economic development in the

country.

● The promulgation of the National Population Policy of 1988 which

was recently revised and officially launched in February 2005.

● Again the federal Ministry of Education and the Nigerian

Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) have

been involved in curriculum and instructional package

development and teacher training for school-based population and

family-life programmes.

Youth has been viewed as a concept defined as the period in an

individual’s life which runs between he end of childhood and entry into

the world of work i.e. 18 to 45 years (Effiong 2002).

People in this age bracket definitely constitute a sizeable chunk of a

nation’s population on which the burden of nation building falls.

Youth are one of the greatest assets that any nation can have (Federal

Republic of Nigeria 1999). Not only are they legitimately regarded as

the future leaders they are potentially and actually the greatest

investment for the development of Onitsha North Local Government

Area. They serve as a good measure of the extent to which Onitsha

North Local Government Area can reproduce as well as sustain itself.

The extent of their vitality responsible conduct and roles in the society is

positively correlated with the development of their country (Zonal Youth

Summits 2000). Therefore the government of Onitsha North local

government area in collaboration with the government of Anambra state

having given due consideration to the significance of the youths in the

socio-economic and political development has found it most desirably

necessary and urgent to initiate and implement programmes that foster

dissemination of information and knowledge on sexuality education

which encompasses all round development of an individual. such efforts

includes the involvement of appropriate stakeholders such as religious

leaders community leaders parents teachers educational

administrators and the media in the process of determining the content

and orientation of sexuality education.

Statement of the Problem

Every individual particularly the youths in Onitsha North local

government area of Anambra state has the basic right to acquire sound

sexuality education which will enable him/her to cope better with the

physical emotional and psychological changes which they encounter at

puberty (Ikpe 2004).

Against this backdrop the Onitsha North local government area of

Anambra state has made several efforts towards provision of sex

education some of which are: involvement of appropriate stakeholders

such as the parents religious leaders teachers media etc in the

process of determining the content and orientation of sexuality

education the use of radio jingles to help create awareness of the

concept among the people etc. Despite all these there are complaints

about sexual practices of the youths. These include

● Poor knowledge on sex education

● Indiscriminate sexual behaviour

● Other social ills such as drug abuse etc (Madunagu B 2006).

However these complaints are not ascertained through any

empirical study. therefore the problem of the study is the need for data

on sexual practices of youths in Onitsha North local government area of

Anambra state.

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this study is to assess sexual practices of the

youths in Onitsha North local government area of Anambra state with a

view to evaluating them.

The specific objectives of the study are to ascertain:

i) The level of knowledge of youths on sex education

ii) Sex education practices among the youths

iii) The effects of gender on the sex education practices among the

youths

iv) The influence of geographical location on the sex education

practices of youths in Anambra state.

Scope of the Study

The scope of sex education though extremely wide this study is

limited to the following areas:

The level of knowledge sexual practices effects of gender and influence

of geographical location on the sex education practices of youths in

Onitsha North local government area of Anambra state.

Significance of the Study

The primary beneficiary of this study is the Onitsha North local

government area as the data on the knowledge of the youths on sex

education will be used for evaluating the council’s efforts over the years.

The youths on the other hand are the secondary beneficiary of this

write-up as the acquisition of factual information on sex education made

more easily accessible through the intensified efforts of the local

government council will enable them to make informed choices and

avoid unplanned and unwanted pregnancy unsafe sexual behaviours

and abortion which will invariably keep them in good health for the

effective contribution in the socio economic and political development of

their society thus leading to a reproductive community and the entire

nation at large.

Research Questions

The following questions were formulated to guide the study:

i) What is the level of knowledge of the youths on sex education?

ii) What are sex education practices exhibited by youths in Onitsha

North local government area?

Hypothesis

i) There is no significant differences in the mean responses of male

and female youths in Onitsha North local government area on the

level of knowledge on sex education.