STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION OF SEX EDUCATION IN SENIOR HIGH SCHOOLS IN BIAKOYE DISTRICT IN THE VOLTA REGION OF GHANA

ABSTRACT This thesis investigated students’ perception of sex education in senior high schools in Biakoye District in the Volta Region of Ghana. The study sought to unearth students’ perception of the sex education in senior high schools. The study reviewed theoretical and empirical studies on sex education. The goal of the study was to address the knowledge gap in the literature by contributing to an understanding of the need to enhance teaching of sex education in senior high schools. Descriptive research design was used for the study. Simple random sampling was used to select sample size of 298 senior high students to respond to sets of questionnaire. Also purposive sampling techniques was used to select ten teachers for interviews. Out of 298 sets of questionnaire sent out, 293 were received indicating a response rate of 98 percent. The study adopted descriptive statistics using frequencies, percentages, and contingency tables to present the results. The main findings of the study were that most students understand sex education to mean knowledge about sexual activities and sexual intercourse, and sex education lessons in senior high schools lay little emphasis on contraceptives. Also, most students agree that comprehensive sex education is more likely to benefit them in their healthy sexual life decisions. It is therefore recommended that efforts should be made by the Ministry of Education, Ghana Education Service, and other district authorities to intensify teaching of comprehensive sex education in senior high schools in the Biakoye District, and finally, future research should be conducted on this phenomenon to ascertain the relationship between comprehensive sex education and application of such knowledge to the benefits students and also help for theory development and policy implication.