Catholic Activists Concerned about Sexually Explicit Learning Materials Targeting Children in South African Schools

Nairobi, 21 August, 2025 / 2:07 AM

School going children as young as nine in South Africa are learning about masturbation, abortion and contraception, Catholic activists at CitizenGO Africa have said, saying that Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) in South African schools violates parental rights.

In a Tuesday, August 19 petition addressed to South Africa’s Minister of Basic Education, citizenGo Campaigns Director for Africa and the United Nations, Ann Kioko, says that the government officials are advancing CSE to the learners without the parents’ consent.

“The South African Department of Basic Education is rolling out Comprehensive Sexuality Education in schools, forcing explicit sexual material on children as young as nine,” Ms. Kioko says, and explains, “The scripted lessons include content on masturbation, abortion, contraception, sexual orientation, and gender identity.”

She adds, “Parents were not consulted. Families were not warned. Communities were excluded from decisions that strike at the heart of their values. Instead, government officials are using schools to advance a divisive left-leaning agenda that undermines childhood innocence and erodes parental rights.”

The Kenyan Catholic activist says that South Africa’s CSE is not neutral but an “ideological social engineering,” designed to shift cultural norms while silencing parents and communities who are in opposition.

She says that the country’s Department of Basic Education has treated mothers, fathers, teachers, and faith leaders with contempt, brushing aside those who raise concerns as “backward” or “anti-progress.”

The effects of CSE are alarming, Ms. Kioko says and explains that the effects, according to the international evidence, shows that it does not reduce teenage pregnancy, HIV infections, or risky behavior.

Instead, she says CSE “normalizes sexual experimentation at a young age, encourages children to see themselves as sexual beings before they are mature, and creates confusion about identity and relationships.”

The Kenyan Catholic activist says the CSE curriculum does not protect children but exposes them to pressures and ideas far beyond their years.

Ms. Kioko says she finds it unfortunate that South African teachers, “many of whom hold strong cultural and religious convictions, are being forced to teach lessons they know are harmful and inappropriate.”

With coercion from the government, she says, the teachers are placed in an impossible position, caught between government directives and their own conscience, thereby deepening mistrust in the education system and further alienating communities from schools.

“South African families are already struggling with broken social structures, unemployment, and high levels of violence,” Ms. Kioko says, and adds, “Rather than strengthen families, government policy now seeks to divide them, pitting children against parents and undermining the role of family as the first educator.”

She further says that CSE replaces parental guidance with “state-imposed ideology, stripping families of the authority that rightly belongs to them.” She warns, “the longer CSE is allowed to continue, the more entrenched it becomes, and the harder it will be to undo the damage.”

Ms. Kioko says that once these scripted lessons take root across the country,  “generations of children will be raised under a distorted worldview that elevates sexual rights above responsibility, family, and morality.”

“This is not progress. This is indoctrination. It is the imposition of a worldview that runs against the values, traditions, and faith of the majority of South Africans. It fractures communities, undermines trust in schools, and weakens the moral foundations of society,” she says.

Protecting children is a universal duty, the citizenGo Campaigns Director for Africa and the United Nations says and adds that South Africa’s government has “failed in this duty by exposing children to content that confuses, sexualizes, and divides.”

“There is still time to correct the course, but every day of delay means more children are harmed,” she says and emphasizes, “The call is clear and urgent: stop Comprehensive Sexuality Education before the damage becomes irreversible.”

Ms. Kioko wants parents reinstated as the primary educators on moral and sexual matters as the CSE offends the most fundamental values of parents, faith communities, and cultures across South Africa.

“Protecting childhood and preserving family integrity is a duty that transcends politics. It is time to stand with South African families and end this divisive program before more damage is done,” she says in the August 19 petition.