Teacher training: preparing teachers to teach a comprehensive sexuality education subject

Projet Jeune Leader shares its approach to training teachers in Madagascar to deliver comprehensive sexuality education in public middle schools, building skills, confidence, and positive gender attitudes.

Since 2013, Projet Jeune Leader has equipped thousands of educators to deliver a dedicated sexuality education subject in lower secondary schools in Madagascar. This brief sets out the organisation's approach to preparing existing government teachers for this role through initial training, noting that training is a foundational driver that determines whether comprehensive sexuality education is delivered effectively.

Many teachers that Projet Jeune Leader trains start off uncomfortable with the subject, struggle to create supportive classrooms, and are unprepared for the sensitive questions students raise. Projet Jeune Leader addresses this through an initial training of fifteen to twenty days, run by experienced facilitators who have taught the curriculum themselves.

Training is participatory and hands-on rather than lecture based, so teachers experience the same style of learning they will later use with their students. It combines two elements: curriculum simulations, where teachers work through the actual lessons they will teach, and base training modules, which build wider skills such as classroom management, safeguarding, trauma awareness and community advocacy.

The brief also reflects on how change unfolds over time. Teachers' attitudes towards gender shift positively during training, and attitudes continue to shift further after a full year of teaching the subject in their own classrooms.

This resource is from Projet Jeune Leader, an organization working to ensure adolescents in Madagascar receive comprehensive sexuality education, delivered by trained educators within the public school system.

Key messages

• Teachers undergo around 120 hours of initial training before starting to teach the sexuality education subject. The training builds their knowledge, skills, confidence, and positive attitudes around curriculum subjects.
• A core training principle is modelling: facilitators create the same experience for teachers-in-training that those teachers will later create for their own students. Teachers-in-training participate in simulations of the complete sexuality education curriculum they will go on to teach.
• Beyond curriculum immersion, Projet Jeune Leader's training builds skills to create safe, empowering classrooms, support students outside class, and protect teachers' own wellbeing while teaching a sensitive subject.