Sex Education in Nepal

TEACHERS' SPEAK ON SEX EDUCATION

Round Table Meeting - The regular feature of Young Herald this time met with the most sensitive topic ‘sex ‘ . Should sex education be introduced in the school curriculum or not was the topic of this month’s round table meeting held at Young Herald ‘s conference room. Our cultured and traditional society have very much influence over the education system so the topic itself was explosive.

However we accomplished to discuss, evaluate and conclude it in an absolute free and frank manner.Incidentally most of the participants were teaching EPH, who were Mr. Binod Pokhrael of Baba Boarding High School, Mr. Javahar Maharjan of Campion Academy, Ms. Aruna Thapa of Chandbagh School, Mr. Sashi Sharma of Galaxy Public School, Ms. Bharati Chhetri of GEMS, Mr. Paras Sharma of DAV and Ms. Geeta Karki of Little Angels.

They unanimously agreed to the need of incorporating sex education in school. Despite their knowledge of positive merit of imparting sex education in schools, they however categorically pointed out some impending factor of general ignorance from the mainstream, ‘We cannot instantly change the general attitude of the our society, they hold a very typical and conservative perspective when it comes to sex’. Nevertheless the teachers admitted that today there is clear indication of change in the people’s perception on sex, which can also support in the induction of sex education in school.

When asked, what should be the aim of sex education, the teachers responded that the students should atleast have a basic knowledge of sex organ and its functioning in order to avoid some embarrassing situations like sometimes students do ask their parents about how they were born. The teachers thinks that it is very erroneous for parents, teachers or elders to misinterpret the student’s curiosity by giving some mythical stories. They were of the opinion that, ‘The more we hide the more complications emerges’. Education should start right from home and if we slowly make our own children familiar with some basic knowledge about sex, we can overcome most of the complications,they percieved .

The teachers were of the opinion that most of the time students spend with their teachers, so school can be the best institution to start the program. When asked about its objectives they responded, ‘To help them understand the pros and cons and its use and abuse’. The school can cover more in-depth topic on sex to make things understandable to students according to their class, which they think should start from class V onwards.

They also stressed the need of experts hands in preparing the course considering the cultural values of our society. Moreover the teachers should also be medically and physiological trained, they suggested. Regarding the existing school course (EPH), the teachers considered it as not sufficient, which according to them offers half the dose and throw them into confusion that compels the students to incline to other medium, which may prove wrong and sometimes damaging too.

When asked what other medium can be of help to disseminate awareness, they suggested the need for general awareness through media including discussion and interaction programs, which they think are the best mediums to wipe out the general misconceptions about the negative aspect of sex education in school. But they fiercely expressed their anger and discomfort about the existing commercials on safe sex (HIV and other STDs) that is compelling them to skip the channels or stations, which they think is not effective but rather very vulgar. They blamed that the media is not acting responsibly and urged them to mould their approach more sensibly.

The teachers even plead the policy makers to come out with such a course that is acceptable to all and they even made an appeal to the concerning people to help the students to get their right for education /information.