Historical Overview of the Health Family Life Education (HFLE)

Family Life Education (FLE) was introduced into the formal curriculum in the mid 1960’s. During the 1970’s there was an increasing number of pilot programmes especially at the secondary level. However, by 1983, Family Life Education activities accelerated with USAID-funded project which was implemented at different levels of the education system, nationally. Activities during the project included training of teachers and guidance counsellors to infuse FLE in the appropriate subject areas and the production of teacher and student materials. These materials included syllabi for grades 1-6 and for grades 7-11. Subsequently, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Culture continued to trained teachers and Guidance Counsellors and to reproduce supplementary materials as part of the process of institutionalizing FLE in the school system. However, despite the several efforts of the Ministry and others agencies which deliver FLE in the formal sector, a critical observation has been that FLE programmes have not produced the desired effect on students and, by extension, on family life and stability in communities. As a result critics have pointed to a lack of standardized delivery modes, duplication of efforts leading to insufficient use of resources and inadequate resources, to explain their observation. In the beginning from indications, the articulation of policy on FLE was necessary and timely. There were various interest groups completing for slots in the curriculum and the various claims on the available resources, the need to identity alternate approaches to sustain learning as well as the necessity for expanding school-community partnerships provided some reasons to document a policy to guide future developments. As a result, in 1994, the Ministry of Education Youth and Culture earmarked for FLE