SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS ON SEX EDUCATION AND RISKY SEXUAL BEHAVIOURS IN BENUE STATE

Abstract

This study investigated senior secondary school students’ perceptions on sex education and risky sexual behaviour in Benue State. The area of study was Katsina-Ala Educational Zone. Two research questions were raised and two hypotheses formulated for the study. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. The population of the study consisted of all secondary schools students in the educational zone.  Simple random sampling was used in drawing a sample of 300 students. A structured questionnaire developed by the researchers titled Sex Education among Secondary Schools Questionnaire (SESSQ) and validated by experts with a reliability coefficient of 0.81 was used for data collection. Based on the data obtained and analyzed using mean scores for answering the research questions while t-test was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 alpha. The study revealed that many students have negative perceptions on attitude towards sex education, and that there was high prevalence of risky sexual behaviours among urban students. The researchers recommended among others that management of secondary schools as well as policy planners should mount aggressive awareness campaigns on sexuality and sex education to change the perceptions of students as well as reduce the incidences of risky sexual behaviours among secondary schools students.