Children should be taught self-respect in sex education
AS PART of teaching reproductive health to school-age children, teaching values toward self-respect should also be added, said Leo Rama, director of the Commission on Population in Eastern Visayas.
Rama said once students learn the value of self-respect, even with the presence of various contraceptives and other materials that could entice them to engage in pre-marital sex, they will learn on how to control themselves not to engage in pre-marital sex.
“Having self-value makes a person decides responsibly for him or herself and that is what we wanted for our children to have at their early age,” Rama added.
Last year, the province of Leyte had implemented a program that teaches early sexual education in selected public schools in the province with high prevalence of early pre-marital sex.
Among the lessons taught was on value formation leading to self-respect.
“This is what we experimented in the province of Leyte, as part of Governor (Jericho) Petilla’s population education program,” said Rama.
The said program targeted high school students from second to fourth year level and grades five to six in the elementary level.
The module used in the program was based on the module developed by the Association of Catholic Universities, which during the program implementation in the province of Leyte some seminarians were included in the teaching force, sharing the church’s perspective on the issue of sex education.
The implementation of said program in Leyte was due to survey conducted by PopCom, showing that the region was on top in the entire country on population of teenagers ages 14-24 that engages in pre-marital sex.
At present, the province of Leyte, Department of Education and PopCom are now at the experimenting level on how teachers desensitize on using terms or words that will pertain to human sexuality.
“We noticed in the experimental implementation of said program that some teachers are too sensitive in saying words that pertains to human sexuality, this is what we wanted to take away from them, so that they can teach appropriately and effectively and their students can relate to them,” Rama added.
Department of Social Welfare and Development Regional Director Leticia Diokno agreed to Rama that sex education should be added with value formation teaching.
“If children have the value and knowledge that engaging in early sex would lead to something that could ruin their future, these children who are taught of being responsible for their self will grow-up as responsible parents,” Diokno said.
Diokno added having responsible parents would also help in improving the condition of family life in the country as would be parents will be aiming to attain sustainable living for their family.
“But this will take for some time, maybe in about 10 or more years, as the result of this kind of program is not an overnight effect,” she added. (Leyte Samar Daily Express)
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