Sex Education in school?

The survey reported that only 5.4% of the adolescents said they had ever had sexual intercourse. But sexual activity covers a wide spectrum of behaviours, intercourse being only one. This is always the perceptions when people tend to raise this subject. Actually, I’m referring to the results of the 2001 International Medical University survey of 4,500 Malaysian adolescents that was featured in the Sunday Star.And something would definitely suprise me on the results show that some of our teens are not the clean-scrubbed well-behaved children we’d like them to be. They smoke, they drink, they take drugs, they have sex, they sometimes try to kill themselves, and sometimes succeed.

Asians generally live in conservative surroundings. They do not know how to react when the subject of sex is brought up, more so when a woman is talking about it openly.I the west, sex education starts at the age of 13 for young people. But is that applicable to be implemented in Malaysia? There are a lot of argument when it comes to the topic of implementing the subject to be accumulated with the current education supplement. All these years, our culture and tradition have been a stumbling block, with parents and teachers shying away from the realities of sex education, which should have been given emphasis long ago. But now, several ministries have taken the preliminary steps introducing sex education to school and urged the parents to support and share the same view. Instead of getting wrong information on sex from friends, it is better for children to know the facts through proper sex education in school.

Ministry of Education is now in process of finalizing the guidelines for the subject. Covering six components – human development, relationships, marriage and family, interpersonal skills, sexual health and behaviour, and society and culture – the guidelines are age specific and meant for preschoolers to adults. Education Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein said the guidelines were a good start as they would give everyone concerned some idea of the direction to follow. While in the mean time, it was also reported yesterday that the Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil want it to be implemented as soon as possible. Again, the question is, are we ready? What about the spreading of pre-marital intercourse among the youngsters after this been implemented? Or increasing stats of HIV infected among the IPTA/IPTS students was due to a lack of moral and religious upbringing and not because of they are not sexually educated? Are we letting ourselves being dumped with Western approach of education? It is back to the government to impose or not to impose the subject, but with a careful analysis, a good result can always be achieved. Parents must also play a part in giving the right guidance and don't just wait and let the burden to the hand of our government.


Mosyaf: Do as I said not as I do............