THE BOY CHILD, EARLY SEXUAL DEBUT AND THE IMPLICATIONS FOR LEARNING AND TEACHING IN COUNTY Q IN KENYA

Abstract

The data for this study is drawn from a large study that was conducted with boys from two primary and two secondary schools in what we are referring to as County-Q in Kenya. The pseudonym is meant to camouflage the identity of the study site. The large study has four research objectives but this paper focuses on only one that was meant to find out the factors that encourage the boy child to engage in sexual activities at an early age, and ways in which that impacts on teaching and learning. The study was informed largely by Participatory Action Research (PAR) and focus group discussions and journal writing were the two main methods used to generate data. The results indicate that the boy child in the region under investigation lacks positive role models; and consequently, lack of sex education from conscientious and responsible adults contribute to early sexual debut, which has negative impact on his academic performance.