Sex education – No kidding matter

Sex education in schools has always been a matter of fierce debate. Whether to have it or not as part of the curriculum, whether to educate school-going children about every aspect of carnal knowledge – all these questions have always raised many eyebrows. This ever explosive issue has received mixed responses from all sections of society. While many feel that sex education should be made mandatory, others feel it should be an optional subject and there are still many who feel it shouldn’t be there at all.

This entire hullabaloo because many think and argue that sex education as a subject, in educational institutions would promote promiscuity and shake our country’s social and cultural ethos. “That’s utterly stupid,” feels Pallavi R, a college student who thinks that teaching something as useful as sex education would never mean promoting something like promiscuity. “I mean, why would it? Are children dumb enough to engage in some nefarious act when they are being educated about the ill-effects of the same? Okay some might, out of curiosity but that is not to say that all of them would.” But not all echo the same thoughts. Srinivas Rao, a marketing professional says, “I don’t think there’s any need to teach students anything. Understanding about everything comes with age. Giving them carnal wisdom at such a young age would bring to mind unnecessary questions and mislead many.”

As Anatole France once said, “The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards.”
It is true that our’s is an ever changing society and in today’s world one can’t strangle the holy curiosity of inquiry. “Sex education is definitely required,” says Shashi Iyer, a research associate with Communication for Development and Learning. “Youth is much disoriented today. To guide them it is mandatory to provide information about these things beforehand so that they don’t get into anything wrong later.” Iyer, who also has an adult daughter says that some years back, parents would not even think of discussing these matters with their children but now “it’s different”, she says. “My mother could never even dream of discussing things like these with me but that’s not the case with me. I discuss everything with my daughter, just so she knows. I’ve even got her a book on sex education which has some basic information on the subject.”

But before you forget, this is India, where you’ll find a lot of diverse opinion and an opinion on each and everything. And there is a difference of opinion among students, teachers, parents and school authorities. “In many cases, it can be merely eyewash,” says Dr Vikram Prabhu. “Some schools might just do it for the sake of it and be done with it. What is actually required is a consensus among parents, students, teachers, school authorities and healthcare departments. Unless and until you involve all these people, you can never reach a consensus.”

In our country, the unfortunate part is that many people get put off by the very mention of the word sex. A lot of stigma and taboo is attached to the word. Dr Prabhu feels that because of the Victorian values we have, we can’t somehow come out of it and get rid of our mind blocks. People should understand that the ground reality is different today.

There is intermingling of the sexes, children are engaging in exploratory behaviour, teenage pregnancies are on a rise, HIV infections are increasing and so are many other problems. One needs to factor in all this before deciding on anything. “Children who engage in promiscuous behaviour or land up in some trouble these days are mostly from “good families” and so we can’t presume that our children are innocent or ‘moral’,” says Dr Prabhu. According to him, sex education is something where we discuss reproductive and health-related issues. He feels, in fact, we should change it to health education instead of sex education and make it an ongoing curriculum, wherein issues like the ill-effects of drugs, HIV and other STDs which are of epidemic proportion nowadays and contraceptives can also be incorporated and discussed. This way the subject would get greater acceptance.

Care has to taken to see that whatever you teach or impart doesn’t appear vulgar as health is a sacred subject and has to be dealt with in a tactful manner. Many counsellors and educators feel that initiating a topic like sex education at the high school level suddenly is what creates a repulse. “Sex education is absolutely necessary and should be started from the primary school level. They should be taught about small things like good touch, bad touch, hygiene, modesty etc and by the time they reach puberty, matters can be discussed in greater details and once you lead them on to it, it becomes a natural process,” says Dr Ali Khwaja , a counsellor..

So what role do parents play in all this? Iyer feels parents should be very open and they should be the first teachers. “You need not go into every detail right from the beginning but should be the first ones to initiate the discussion at least.” “Parents have to be in the frontline. They should overcome their shyness, not attach any bad meanings to the term sex and talk about it openly. But at the same time there’s no guarantee that parents would actually talk about it, so sex education or health education, as I would call it, should be made mandatory at the school level. Children are already aware of certain things, they just need to be educated in a more scientific manner, adds Dr Prabhu.

 Ali Khwaja feels that sex education should not be isolated from life education. It is not just about how sexual activity takes place. It is very much a part of life-skills education and one has to understand the nuances of the matter and its deeper implications before jumping  to conclusions.

India is the land of the Kamasutra and our tradition bears testimony to the fact. Let’s not forget that. Sexuality and sex education is not something to be ashamed about or hidden. And it has not got anything to do with morals, for all those who argue that it has. It has got to do with health, is totally unbiased and is an integral part of life that just needs to be channelised properly. All we need to do is tailor the curriculum to suit our Indian situation.