Sexuality Education to Adolescent Girls: A Panacea to Reducing the Incidence of ‘Baby Factories’ in South East Nigeria

Abstract

In Nigeria, sexuality education was given to young people as they undergo rites of passage at the onset of puberty. It is expected that as this no longer obtains, the immediate family and the school should take on the duty. In this study, the researchers sought to know if giving sexuality education to adolescent girls will serve as a panacea to reducing teenage pregnancies and ‘baby factories’ in South East Nigeria. The subjects for the study were 22 adolescents girls of between ages 12 to 17 who supplied narrative accounts of the sexual experiences that led to their getting pregnant. The result showed that information on sexuality is still not accessible to teenagers making them pawns in the hands of people that exploit their ignorance. Based on the result, it is recommended that the family and schools should make sexuality related information available to teenage girls.