Life Orientation Grade 10 MP Task Term 1 2026 Questions and Answers

Two ways in which acknowledging your uniqueness may enable you to enhance your individuality in relationships are:

1. If you understand what makes you who you are, such as your personality, strengths, interests, values and weaknesses, you can show up confidently and honestly in the relationships you form with others.
2. If you feel free to be yourself among others, you can stand firm against negative criticism and peer pressure, and your friends learn to respect your choices instead of judging them.

Four ways in which social media may negatively impact attempts by Grade 10 learners to develop their self-esteem are:

1. Social media shows idealised and edited images of people's lives and looks, so learners who compare themselves to these images may feel unattractive, inadequate or unsuccessful.
2. Learners may receive hurtful messages, teasing or rumours online (cyberbullying), which damages their developing sense of self-worth and makes them doubt themselves.
3. Learners may seek approval through likes and comments on what they post, and when their posts do not get the expected attention they may feel rejected and not good enough.
4. Learners may create a false online version of themselves to become popular, which causes confusion between their real identity and the image they try to project.

Four ways in which low self-esteem in girls may deepen unequal power relations between boys and girls are:

1. When girls doubt their own worth, they may tolerate disrespectful behaviour from boys and accept stereotypes such as boys being natural leaders, which gives boys more social power.
2. When girls struggle to assert themselves, they may avoid giving their opinions or standing up for their rights, so boys' voices dominate.
3. When girls seek validation from boys, boys gain emotional power over them, and girls may change their behaviour or stay in unhealthy relationships because they fear rejection.
4. When girls doubt their abilities and do not try for positions such as class representative or team captain, a pattern develops in which boys hold the leadership positions and their voices count more.

If you know who you are, what you believe in and what you want in life, unrealistic or hurtful media messages have less influence on you, so you are less likely to compare yourself to edited images and fake lifestyles or feel pressured to follow every trend.

Two ways in which low self-esteem in girls may make them vulnerable to sexual abuse are:

1. Low self-esteem weakens a girl's confidence and assertiveness, because she lacks the courage to stand up for herself. She may then struggle to say no or to set firm personal boundaries, and this makes it easier for a person with bad intentions to pressure or manipulate her into sexual activity.
2. A girl with low self-esteem may not feel good about herself and doubt what she can do, so she keeps looking for praise, attention and affection from others. Abusers deliberately target people who seem insecure and eager to please, so she may mistake harmful attention for love and be emotionally manipulated into sex.

Two practical strategies that could enhance self-esteem in Grade 10 learners, and their benefit for social relationships in class, are:

1. Learners can be encouraged to take part in extracurricular activities such as sport, music or debating, because success in these activities helps them appreciate their own abilities. Feeling more capable makes them more willing to mix with classmates and contribute in group work.
2. Learners can be taught to replace negative self-talk with positive self-talk, which strengthens their self-belief and emotional resilience. Learners who believe in themselves are less defensive and relate to their classmates with more respect and confidence.

Gender-based violence is any harmful act directed at a person because of their gender, with the intention of hurting, humiliating, controlling or dominating them.

Four reasons why gender-based violence is still common in South Africa are:

1. Many communities still hold patriarchal beliefs that men should have power over women.
2. High levels of poverty, unemployment and economic stress put pressure on families.
3. Slow police responses, poor investigations and low conviction rates make perpetrators feel they can act without consequences.
4. High rates of alcohol and drug abuse are linked to aggressive behaviour and intimate partner violence.

Two differences between discrimination and human rights violation are:

1. Discrimination is the unfair or unequal treatment of a person or group because of characteristics such as race, gender, age, disability, religion or sexual orientation, whereas a human rights violation happens when a person's basic rights and freedoms are denied or ignored.
2. Discrimination aims to exclude certain people or treat them unequally, whereas a human rights violation goes further by denying a person the fundamental rights in the Bill of Rights and attacking their human dignity.

Discriminating behaviour divides people into groups of "us" and "them", which leads to tension, hostility and conflict between groups and weakens unity in the community.

Three ways in which continued gender-based violence in families may result in femicide are:

1. Violence in relationships often starts with minor incidents, such as pushing or slapping, which can gradually become more serious until the woman is killed.
2. When GBV in a family continues unchecked or is seen as normal, the abuser feels justified and more confident to use extreme violence to get what he wants.
3. When an abuser feels there are no consequences for his actions, this sense of impunity increases the chance of more severe violence, including murder.

Four reasons why efforts to eliminate women and child abuse fail are:

1. Deep-rooted cultural norms and patriarchal beliefs normalise male dominance and encourage silence about abuse, so women and children are seen as subordinate and are discouraged from leaving abusive relationships.
2. Many cases of abuse are never reported because victims fear stigma, revenge from the abuser, not being believed or losing financial support, so perpetrators are not held accountable.
3. A weak law enforcement and justice system, with delays in court cases, poor evidence collection and poorly trained police, means perpetrators face little or no consequences and continue abusing.
4. Victims often depend financially on the abuser, so they are afraid that they will not be able to provide for their children if they report or leave the breadwinner.

Two ways in which gender-based violence may impact the emotional wellbeing of the victims are:

1. Victims often experience intense trauma, which can lead to flashbacks, nightmares, avoiding reminders of the violence and always being on guard.
2. The deep emotional pain of GBV can develop into depression, so victims lose interest in activities they used to enjoy, withdraw from others and feel hopeless about the future.

Two reasons why corrective rape could be regarded as a form of gender-based violence are:

1. Corrective rape is rooted in harmful gender norms and discrimination, because it is based on the false belief that certain gender or sexual identities are wrong and need to be fixed. This belief leads to sexual violence against people whose identity differs from what society expects, and because the harm is done on the basis of gender identity, it falls within the definition of GBV.
2. Corrective rape is used to exert power and control over the victim, as it is meant to dominate, intimidate and punish someone for not fitting society's expectations. The perpetrator uses violent sex to force the victim into submission, so it is violence driven by the victim's gender identity or sexual orientation, which makes it GBV.

The 16 Days of Activism campaign has succeeded in raising awareness and starting national conversations about GBV, which has encouraged more victims to speak out and report abuse. However, its impact on the rate of GBV is limited because the campaign runs for only 16 days a year, which is too short to change deep-rooted attitudes and behaviour, so many offenders simply continue their abuse once the campaign is over.

Grade 10 learners can report any incident of GBV to a trusted teacher or the school management, so that the perpetrator is stopped early and further harm is prevented. This ensures that victims receive protection and support, and makes them feel believed, valued and not alone.