Comprehensive sexuality education plays a central role in preparing adolescents and young people for a safe, productive and fulfilling life, and it is an important component of an HIV prevention package for young people. It provides opportunities to learn and acquire complete, accurate, evidence-informed and age-appropriate knowledge on sexuality and sexual and reproductive health issues.
Comprehensive sexuality education―defined as a curriculum-based process of teaching and learning about the cognitive, emotional, physical and social aspects of sexuality―have been shown to contribute to delayed initiation of sexual intercourse, decreased frequency of sexual intercourse, decreased number of sexual partners, reduced risk taking, increased use of condoms and increased use of contraception among young people.
Despite the importance of comprehensive sexuality education, however, access to it is far from universal.
