Primary school heads have been urged to incorporate life skills curriculum in their syllabus to impart reproductive health messages to the learners.
The call was aimed at curbing the high school drop-out rate due to teenage pregnancy and HIV infections in Kiambu County.
Speaking at a health stakeholders’ meeting in Kiambu town on Monday, the County Quality Assurance and Standardisation Officer, Benson Kimani, said that most learners in the 12-24 age bracket were sexually active hence easily prone to teenage pregnancy and STIs.
Kimani regretted that schools were pre-occupied with achieving highest mean scores and had forgotten about non-examinable programmes.
“Lessons on abstinence and behaviour change in schools are key in reducing dropouts due to teenage pregnancy,” he remarked.
He urged the Ministry of Education (MoE) to revive the programme dubbed “Primary and Secondary schools action for better health.”
Kimani called upon school heads to also reactivate school health clubs to be able to channel health messages on reproductive health to pupils. He called for a comprehensive review of the school curriculum to include lessons on how to deal with HIV infections and deaths among adolescents.