Abstract

There has been increasing levels of sexual violence against girls in South African schools. Girls continue to face obstacles to their learning even though some progress has been made in terms of gender equality in education. The opportunities that girls have to learn should in no way be compromised by their gender. Sexual violence leads to dropping out, interruption of studies, unwanted pregnancies and HIV/AIDS. Attitudes towards females feed in to the notion that coercive sex is not a violent act. Although this study focuses on the girls and recognized that boys are also being sexually assaulted.

Key words: Attitude, girls, learners, school and sexual violence.