Radio VOP
3 December 2011
Bulawayo – The Minister of Education and Culture, David Coltart said his Ministry will not allow distribution of condoms in secondary schools saying no parent would want his or her child to indulge in sex whilst at school.
Responding to a question by an anti-HIV/AIDS activist in Bulawayo on Thursday commemoration of World Aids Day, who wanted know why his Ministry was not dishing out condoms to secondary schools claiming that most children are indulging in sex, Coltart said he won’t allow that.
“There is no way we can allow distribution of condoms in schools. Parents want their children to abstain from sex at school age. School children should focus on their studies; we can’t have condoms in school toilets, classrooms and libraries. Those who would want condoms should go outside the school premises maybe at nightclubs and street corners not at schools,†said Coltart.
Recently the National Aids Council (NAC) also said it was proposing amendments to a number of laws that could see the distribution of condoms at schools as a way of fighting the HIV/Aids scourge.
NAC said there were bringing out a view on what they had found out in their survey and what the general public felt would be the panacea to the spread of the HIV virus.
If Zimbabwe allows the distribution of condoms in schools it will be following on the footsteps of South Africa which in 2007 introduced the Children’s Act that gives children who are 12 years and above the right to access condoms.
Zimbabwe used to be one of the worst affected by HIV/Aids in the world although transmission rates have been declining in the last few years.
Researchers say fear of infection and mass social change have driven a huge decline in HIV rates in Zimbabwe offering important lessons on how to fight the Aids epidemic to the rest of Africa.