JOIN USSex education is finding it hard to fight its way into the curriculum, but ‘sex’ still finds itself mired in different subjects like biology, health and uncannily, even value education.
The value education course book followed by St Anthony’s Sr Sec School, Hauz Khas has a chapter that reads, ‘The second greatest gift of God’. What is the second greatest gift of God? To be able to give birth and create another of mankind.
In schools, sex education is still kept under wraps or only entertained through workshops taking place once or twice in a year. Another very innovative way of keeping sex education regular is through including ‘Health’ as a regular subject.
Health education comprises a combination of learning experiences designed to help individuals and communities improve their health. In many of these health books, there is one chapter related to ‘Youth reproductive and sexual health’.
A girl from Gyan Bharati School, Saket says that they have health education as a subject and once a year, there is a talk on ‘periods’ and boys are asked to move out during that class.
Sonia Luthra, Principal, ASN Sr Sec School says, “We have sex education in our school, but we don’t tell the children that it is ‘sex education’. We just introduce them to the counsellors and they take the class.”
“Children with questions about sex can go to any teacher they want. Our teachers are very forward in their thinking,” says Sangeeta Hajela, Vice Principal, Delhi Public School, Indirapuram.
DPS Indirapuram holds workshops twice a year on sex education by inviting counsellors from outside. Hajela says, “It is important to know about good touch, bad touch nowadays as the child is growing.”
Nupur Mahajan, counsellor, has taken workshops in many schools in and around Delhi. “It is very easy to conduct a session with children, as above the age of 13 years, they are very excited to talk about sex and the act, but the school curriculum mostly allows us to discuss good touch and bad touch.”
According to Mahajan, before starting with sex education workshops, the first step is to hold talks with the teachers. “Most teachers refuse to take sessions saying ‘there is no use’. Once we took a session with teachers and it took us four hours to break the ice with them. Then with the children it was merely a matter of an hour and a half, which is mostly what it takes in all schools,” says Mahajan.
Mahajan adds, “Good touch, bad touch becomes mandatory, as according to UNICEF statistics, one in two children below the age of five is a victim of child abuse in India. Yet, sex-related queries of children do not find space which need to be addressed when we talk about sex education.”