Settings and Audiences for Peer Education

Because schools are an essential part of many young people's social landscape, they can offer a forum for addressing issues relevant to youth. These might include sexuality, violence, gender norms, and social support.

There are numerous advantages to running peer education programs in schools. Schools have trained educators who can act as competent supervisors. They also have the infrastructure, resources and expertise of regional and national educational departments to support their efforts. And they benefit from the formal support of parents and the community.

School peer education programs can be run as part of existing structured learning programs, where peer educators fulfill their education role by leading some of the lessons for younger or same age peers. This strategy is likely to be the most effective, as it reaches all students, rather than only those who volunteer to attend. A second approach is to offer peer education as an extracurricular activity offered after school or during break times.

But offering peer education as a part of the formal school program is not without challenges. Schools need to consider the policy and legal implications of having learners teach their peers in classrooms during the formal school learning program. How do teachers guarantee the safety of learners (which they are obligated to do) if peer educators are facilitating lessons for which a teacher's presence is not ideal? How do the lessons which peer educators deliver fall into the overall curriculum? How are they recorded, reported and assessed? How do we ensure that all learners learn the skills that peer educators will learn — of research, presentation, facilitation? There are answers to these questions and dilemmas and education planners and managers need time to articulate a clear policy.