"I don't exactly remember who told me or how old I was when I found out about menstruation. However I do remember my feelings about this new-found knowledge. I thought it was disgusting and I still think it's disgusting. The first time I can remember hearing about menstruation was when I was probably at around sixth grade. I remember my peers joking about periods and blood often. It always seemed like something that guys could make jokes about to make girls seem embarrassed or to seem superior to them." (Comments by an anonymous girl)
One of the most challenging times for a person's life is the period of puberty, when the body goes through multiple changes all at once as it signals the transition to adulthood. Many students enter puberty unprepared. On average, females begin puberty between 10 and 11 years of age (the age varies depending on factors such as nutrition), males a year later. The information they receive is often selective and surrounded by taboos. Often the parents, as well as the education centres, avoid the issue by considering it a private matter, or a problem to be addressed personally. But upon facing this crucial phase of life unprepared, the young learners are left confused and unsupported, which in turn affects the quality of their education.
Since most of the parents find it difficult to speak on sensitive and sex-related issues with their children, even while admitting it to be their responsibility, schools have a central role to play in puberty education. The book Puberty Education & Menstrual Hygiene Management lays out the context and rationale for the education sector's involvement, the characteristics of good quality puberty education and menstrual hygiene management, as well as the key issues for programme development, its implementation and sustainability. It encourages a holistic approach to health promotion, starting with education, creation of healthy environment, and linkages to health services.
The book puts forth a vision of puberty education that is skill-based, inclusive and comprehensive. It also reminds us that puberty is not a problem that needs to be solved; it is simply a time of accelerated physical growth and sexual development experienced by every human. For girls, puberty means the onset of menstruation.
In many contexts, menstruation is considered a private issue, making it difficult to speak about in public, for instance in a classroom. Numerous studies, particularly from low-income countries, show that a very high number of girls start menstruating without having any idea what is happening to them or why. In general, puberty is marked by the first menstruation for females and the development of sperm and the first ejaculation for males. Girls are faced with challenges related to management of menstruation in public places. UNICEF estimates that 1 in 10 school-age African girls 'do not attend school during menstruation'. Lack of information, misconceptions and adverse attitudes to menstruation may lead to a negative self-image among girls, who are experiencing menses for the first time, and can result in a lack of self-esteem as they develop their personality as women. The culture of 'silence' around menstruation increases the perception of menstruation as something shameful which needs to be hidden, and may reinforce misunderstandings and negative attitudes toward it.
In order to impart puberty education to students, the book suggests alternative teaching-learning methods beyond classroom lectures. Learner-centred participatory methods - such as peer-led activities, group problem-solving and dramatisation - are needed to go beyond conventional knowledge to address values, attitudes and skills. Peer education can fill the gap in more traditional curriculum-based education allowing young people to ask questions in a non-threatening, non-embarrassing setting and get answers they might not get in a traditional classroom. The online materials which include audio and video contents, interactive games, quizzes and other resources can be useful tools, as these open a safe space for students and teachers to feel free to discuss sensitive topics.
The book lays emphasis on including boys and men in puberty education as puberty affects both girls and boys, and addressing one without the other will reduce the effectiveness of any programme. Due to not properly engaging boys in a major topic of puberty --- menstruation, it leads them to misunderstand an essential part of womanhood, reducing it to something unpleasant that should remain concealed and invisible.
Teachers are often unprepared to teach puberty and menstrual hygiene management. Studies indicate teachers may feel uncomfortable with modules relating to sex and sexuality. In addition, the topic is not always a priority at school and is generally taught as part of an after-school stage not covered at all by curricula. The scenario prompts teachers to spend less time on it compared to topics on which students' merit could be tested.
This book has demonstrated a range of ways in which the education sector can engage with the issues of puberty education and menstrual hygiene management. It has covered aspects such as curricula, teachers' training, community involvement, peer education, and public-private partnerships, among others. The book stresses the involvement of the ministry of education in these crucial issues. Puberty education and menstrual hygiene management at schools relate to international agreements on access to education, the quality of education, and sexual, reproductive and gender equity and rights. Governments are responsible for the delivery of education, ensuring gender equality, access to safe water and sanitation, and sexual and reproductive health rights, among others.
The ministry of education and its partners are responsible for adapting (if necessary) the existing curricula, the teaching materials and teachers' training curricula to align those with the requirements for providing quality puberty education as has been laid out in the book.
The wide range of examples presented in the book provides ideas for translating concepts into action in diverse contexts, which will serve to move the education sector toward comprehensive, systemic and sustainable policies and programmes for a high-quality "education for all".
Rather than a barrier to education, puberty is an opportunity to help learners to understand human development and begin building skills for creating a healthy future.
The book follows an extensive appraisal of prevalent realities, key informant interviews, an international technical consultation and peer reviews. The consultation convened by UNESCO in July 2013 brought together a broad range of international stakeholders from government, UN agencies, academia, civil society and the private sector. This evidence-based well-documented book is a useful resource-base for education policy-makers and planners, school governing bodies, administrators, head teachers, general teachers and other educators as well as researchers who are taking some of the challenges to create a healthy learning environment.
The writer is an independent researcher.
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PUBERTY EDUCATION & MENSTRUAL HYGIENE MANAGEMENT,
Published by UNESCO, 2014, ISBN: 978-92-3-100011-9
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