A fact of life

Sex continues to generate heat, for all the wrong reasons though. With schools set to chalk out their curriculum, conservative sections of the society have begun united efforts to stonewall any attempt to introduce sex education in the syllabus. Educationists and child psychologists though aver that it’s better that a child knows about his or her sexuality.

Experts feel that sex is not something that children should not know or even talk about. “A well-planned session on sex education in schools would help children gather information from reliable sources rather than from magazines, Internet and friends which may or may not be true. Since sexuality is an important dimension of the lives and experiences of individuals, a dimension that starts manifesting itself in ways that are positive and negative during childhood and is a significant aspect of adolescence, we firmly believe that sex education needs to be included in the school curriculum so as to inform and empower young people,” says Benson Issac of Samvada, an NGO.

Educationists say that such sessions would help adolescents deal with the bodily changes and help understand them better. It will address their fears and anxieties. These sessions help them distinguish the good from bad and the right from wrong.

Educationist Swati Popat Vats says sex education in syllabus should be a subtle inclusion of something that is a fact of life. Sessions on sex education will help young girls and boys distinguish good and bad touch. If sex is taught in the right way, then all the giggles and laughs in these sessions can be eliminated, she reasons.

Child psychologist Dr Amit Sen avers that there is no evidence to demonstrate that the introduction of sex education leads to increased sexual activity among young people. In fact, the young become more conscious and aware of their sexuality. And he says unnecessary teenage pregnancies can be avoided by this.

Youth too are for sex education in schools. Twenty six-year -old Anitha Ramkumar believes that the more you restrict the young the more curious they would become to gather information. There’s nothing to hide why must we? she asks and adds: Teenagers Anisha Samat and Raksha Reddy believe that every school must compulsorily have a session on sex. “It’s vital in this day and age. These sessions could go a long way in giving factual information,” says Anisha. Raksha wonders why some schools seem embarrassed to have such sessions. “The young are curious to find out more about sex so well-read and well-informed people could help give out useful information.” Nevin another 16-year-old says knowledge about sex could help avert AIDS.

But parents nurse fears that their children might gather information from the wrong source and form opinions based on that. Most parents are not willing to talk to their kids openly about it and would rather have them put through sessions at school. Teresa Chen, a stylist believes every school in the City must have a separate hour dedicated to sex education. Koshy Mathew, a communications expert considers sex education the formal and scientific way of disseminating information about sex.