'Rape' scenario forces evaluation of textbooks
A task team has been appointed to evaluate school textbooks after complaints about a rape scenario in a Grade 10 life orientation textbook.
|||Cape Town - Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga has appointed a task team to evaluate school textbooks to ensure they are free of bias in terms of race, sex, gender and other forms of discrimination.
The department said on Wednesday that there had been complaints and concerns about a page in a Grade 10 life orientation textbook, and the inappropriate content would be “eradicated”.
The story focuses on a girl who went out to a party with friends without seeking permission from her parents. The group of friends get drunk and push the girl into a room where she is raped by an unknown male. The girl feels she can’t report the rape to her parents because they would know she had lied.
The department said the problem was the question that was then posed to pupils: “List two ways in which Angie’s behaviour led to sexual intercourse?”
“This question raises very serious misconceptions and stereotypes about rape’ and the relationship between the perpetrator and the victim, in that the victim might have played a role that led her to be raped.
“The department is fully aware of implications such scenarios have on the psyche of our children and the general public about the scourge of rape that the country is battling with,” it said in a statement.
The task team appointed by Motshekga consists of experts from higher education institutions. They will look at a broad sample of textbooks, towards the development of a textbook policy “on promoting content that fosters diversity going forward”.
Patric Solomons from children’s rights group Molo Songololo commended the department, saying schools should have a checklist of material that could be offensive.
The department has written to the publisher to ensure the material will no longer be taught in classrooms.
Cape Argus