If you don’t teach from where they can learn Sex Education

Students today look for information about sex and sexuality from the uncensored books, ill-informed friends, and from unauthorised quarters which are often incomplete and wrong. This poses the biggest challenge for the schools and the families. If they don’t teach, from where can they learn sex education?


ntroduction of sex education in schools and colleges has been acontroversial topic and people prefer to keep a distance from it. Imagining a country with the second highest population in the world, having citizens who are not fully aware of sexual education, makes one wonder.
Although some form of sex education is part of the curriculum in many schools, it remains a taboo in several states in India, particularly with regard to the age at which children should start receiving sex education, the amount of detail that is revealed, and topics dealing with human sexuality and behaviour.
However, the predominant question that arises among the educationists is this: If you don’t teach, from where can they learn sex education?
What is Sex Education?
United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights declared the following : "Sex education, which is sometimes called sexuality education or sex and relationships education, is the process of acquiring information and forming attitudes and beliefs about sex, sexual identity, relationships and intimacy. We can also say that this study is meant to develop people’s skills so that they make proper choices about their behaviour, and feel confident and competent about acting on these choices. It is accepted widely that young people have a right to sex education, partly because it is a means by which they are helped to protect themselves against abuse, exploitation, unintended pregnancies, sexual harassments, sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS."
Different views on Sex Education
In Lucknow, the majority of people (77%) favour introduction of sex education as part of the curriculum from class 1X.
Describing the move by governments in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Chhattisgarh to ban sex education as "hypocrisy", K Sujatha Rao, National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) Director General, said, this will particularly have an impact on children from poor families who depend on schools for providing the right information. "Banning sex education is hypocrisy on their part. Our survey has shown that teenage boys are indulging in casual sex. Fifteen per cent of total deliveries in India involve teenage girls," Rao explained.
The Minister for Primary and Secondary Education Basavaraj Horatti of Karnataka told presspersons that the State Government had decided to write to the Union Human Resource Development Ministry that the Government in the State would not introduce sex education as a subject as it would not be in the students’ interest.
He also said that instead of sex education, a study material on ‘Life Skills" prepared by the National Institute for Mental Health and Neuro Science (NIMHANS), Bangalore, would be used for teaching health education and discipline. Earlier, Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy too had expressed his views against introduction of sex education on the ground that it would be perceived as "anti-culture" and "anti-social".
Still on this point the students of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishid (ABVP) disrupted a convocation ceremony attended by Union Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh in protest against the introduction of sex education in schools and the Bajrang Dal too launched a tirade against the Central Government’s move to implement sex education in schools across the country.
Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Kerala have already banned sex education in schools. The Maharashtra Government is the latest to ban sex education in government schools. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) in Rajasthan had threatened to launch a state-wide agitation against introduction of sex education in CBSE courses. Terming as ‘obscene and illogical’ to give sex education in class 12, the VHP demanded a state government ban on books related to the subject.
According to analysts, an estimated 5.7 million Indians have been infected by HIV/AIDS and sex education could reduce the number significantly. But the ban has triggered off a heated debate in the states as educators, psychologists, even students do not agree with the government’s ban. They say it is nonsensical to ban in school what students can get on the Internet and TV.
Why sex education is a must?
The kinds of skills young people develop as part of sex education are linked to general life-skills. For example, being able to communicate, listen, negotiate, ask for and identify sources of help and advice, are useful life-skills and can be applied in terms of sexual relationships. Effective sex education develops young people’s skills in negotiation, decision-making, assertion and listening. Sex education also helps to equip young people with the skills to differentiate between accurate and inaccurate information, discuss a range of moral and social issues and perspectives on sex and sexuality, including different cultural attitudes and sensitive issues like sexuality, abortion and contraception.
Young people can be exposed to a wide range of attitudes and beliefs in relation to sex and sexuality. They are interested in the moral and cultural frameworks that bind sex and sexuality. They often welcome opportunities to talk about issues where people have strong views, like abortion, sex before marriage, lesbian and gay issues, contraception and birth control. It is important to remember that talking in a balanced way about differences in opinion does not promote one set of views over another, or mean that one agrees with a particular view.
Effective sex education also provides young people with an opportunity to explore the reasons why people have sex, and to think about how it involves emotions, respect for one self and other people and their feelings, decisions and bodies. Young people should have the chance to explore gender differences and how ethnicity and sexuality can influence people’s feelings and options. They should be able to decide for themselves what the positive qualities of relationships are. It is important that they understand how bullying, stereotyping, abuse and exploitation can negatively influence relationships.
When should sex educa-tion start?
Sex education that works starts early, before young people reach puberty, and before they have developed established patterns of behaviour. The precise age at which information sho-uld be provided depends on the physical, emotional and intellectual development of the young people.
Providing basic information provides the foundation on which more complex knowledge is built up over time. This also means that sex education has to be sustained. For example, when they are very young, children can be informed about how people grow and change over time, and how babies become children and then adults.
Some people are concerned that providing information about sex and sexuality arouses curiosity and can lead to sexual experimentation.
There is no evidence that this happens. It is important to remember that young people can store up information provided at any time, for a time when they need it later on. Parents and carers can also be proactive and engage young people in discussions about sex, sexuality and relationships.
Naturally, many parents and their children feel embarrassed about talking about some aspects of sex and sexuality. Viewing sex education as an on-going conversation about values, attitudes and issues as well as providing facts can be helpful.
Who should provide sex education?
Different settings provide different contexts and opportunities for sex education. At home, young people can easily have one-to-one discussions with parents or carers which focus on specific issues, questions or concerns. They can have a dialogue about their attitudes and views. Sex education at home also tends to take place over a long time, and involves lots of short interactions between parents and children.
In school the interaction between the teacher and young people takes a different form and is often provided in organised blocks of lessons. The most effective sex education acknowledges the different contributions each setting can make. School programmes which involve parents, notifying them what is being taught and when, can support the initiation of dialogue at home. Parents and schools both need to engage with young people about the messages that they get from the media, and give them opportunities for discussion.
Taking Sex Education Forward
Providing effective sex education can seem daunting because it means tackling potentially sensitive issues. However, because sex education comprises many individual activities, which take place across a wide range of settings and periods of time, there are lots of opportunities to contribute.
The nature of a person’s contribution depends on their relationship, role and expertise in relation to young people. For example, parents are best placed in relation to young people to provide continuity of individual support and education. School-based education programmes are particularly good at providing information and Because sex education can take place across a wide range of settings, there are lots of opportunities to contribute.
opportunities for skills development and attitude clarification in more formal ways, through lessons within a curriculum. Community-based projects provide opportunities for young people to access advice and information in less formal ways. Sexual health and other health and welfare services can provide access to specific information, support and advice. Sex education through the mass media, often supported by local, regional or national Government and non-governmental agencies and departments, can help to raise public awareness of sex health issues.
There is also a need to pay more attention to the needs of specific groups of young people like young parents, young lesbian, gay and bisexual people, as well as those who may be out of touch with services and schools and socially vulnerable, like young refugees and asylum-seekers, young people in care, young people in prisons, and also those living on the street.
The circumstances and context available to parents and other sex educators are different from place to place. Practical or political realities in a particular state may limit people’s ability to provide young people with comprehensive sex education. But the basic principles outlined here apply everywhere. By making our own contribution and valuing that made by others, and by being guided by these principles, we can provide good sex education that works and improve the support we offer to young people.