Sex Education: Another Should-have

First, it was about making English Language a compulsory subject to pass in the SPM. Now it’s about sex education. I’m starting to lose track of the number of topics that have been discussed over and over then left on the shelf again.

If I am not wrong, this topic was already discussed 10 years ago. On 16 October 2000, a Senior Minister announced that sex education would be taught in schools starting that year. Teenagers in secondary school would be taught facts on kissing in public, having sex, getting pregnant, pornography, homosexuality and sexually transmitted diseases.

But the whole idea was scrapped, so here we are deliberating it again. I was glad that the NUTP had agreed to the teaching of the subject. Then, disappointed again when the Education Minister said a committee will be set up to get views from various quarters.

Back and forth, back and forth. Cha-cha seems to be a very popular dance, doesn’t it? If you have no idea what I’m talking about, please refer to my earlier entry on making English a compulsory subject.

So it goes that teenage pregnancy and baby dumping continue to perpetuate for yet another decade, and another. Why does this happen? … Because we allow religion, outdated views and medieval social taboos to prevent a solution from being launched.

Education is the key out of poverty. Education is also the key out of ignorance and the consequences of ignorance. With this I mean complete education, not half-baked attempts.

Malaysia should learn from the US and Singapore. Better still, learn from the Dutch!
Singapore started sex education in its schools several years ago, but that didn’t stop the rise in sexually transmitted diseases by 3-fold since 2002 to 2007. The reason for this was that the focus of sex education was on abstinence when it should have been on the consequences, and prevention of pregnancy and diseases.

Mike Taake, an American teacher teaching sex education for the past 30 years, said from experience that telling youngsters to wait is useless. The sex education policy in his state does not include teaching about methods of contraception. If he did, he could be prosecuted.

We should learn from these two countries’ experience that living in denial is counter productive ... in denial that prevention through complete sex education is more important than social taboo and sensitivities; in denial that times have changed and that modern societal conventions are not what they used to be.

I am not saying that we should allow our children to start doing it. Let’s face it: there is no way we can control them 24-7. I believe that we should educate them on the many consequences so that they abstain or so that they know how to avoid trouble.

The Dutch approach to sex education is more comprehensive and pragmatic. They have learned eons ago that children are going to do it anyway, so they think they might as well talk about the responsibilities of having sex, rather than to be in denial.

Their students are given the complete package - biological information, values, attitudes, communications skills and prevention methods. As a result, they have relatively low rates of teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections compared to other European countries.

We don’t need a national survey to find out whether parents educate their children properly on this subject. Statistics already answered this question. Isn’t it better to let teachers do so in schools than let children discover it through the Internet? Or worse still … by experimenting first?