The rising cases of early pregnancy has led to the need of sex education among children
Educational institutes affiliated the Catholic church are looking to address the contentious issue of 'sex education' in schools.
In a day–long conference held at the St Pius Seminary Complex in Goregoan, Mumbai, on Wednesday, speakers spoke of preparing modules through feedback from representatives of educational institutes under Western Region Catholic Association for Education (WRCAE), to encourage family values, and to look at ways of imparting 'sex education' among children. The WRCAE covers Maharashtra, Gujarat and Goa, and has 1,500 educational institutes affiliated with it. The conference was organised by WRCAE with representatives of institutes from each state.
"The Pope in his apostolic exhortation on love in the family stated that family values need to be discussed and encouraged. We are looking to have tangible and practical ways to exhort the lessons on family and life. The idea is to prepare modules where in no religious group or community is averse to the imparting of education and we can also reach to the child," said Fr George Athaide, secretary of WRCAE.
Lately, the association has felt that family values need to be introduced in Value Education class to prevent families from breaking up later on. The rising cases of early pregnancy has led to the need of sex education among children.
"The term sex education raises alarm bells in the minds of many. Instead, we can rightfully call our program 'Value Education in personal life and family life' or something to that effect where in a students are taught how to respect their bodies, the fullness of the human person, emotional, intellectual and social development of a person instead of focusing too much on genital
and reproductive functionalities," said Fr Cajetan Menezes, director of Family Apostolate, which looks after family welfare programs.
He added, "Programs like 'safe sex' trivialises the issue of sex education. We want to move away from that to address it in a way that people do not say it is against our culture or sanskriti." During the conference, representatives sought opinions on what they see as the immediate threat to family life, and how can they impart sex education in best way.
The foremost challenge identified was the 'influence of media on values' and the ones coming from 'broken families' among others. Representatives suggested the need to involve Parents Teachers Association members, have trained speakers conduct sessions for parents, and provide better resource material.
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