Dire need for better sex education in schools, say groups

PETALING JAYA: Child rights and women groups have reiterated calls for sex education in schools in view of the “insignificant” decrease in pregnancies among unmarried teenagers, despite many government initiatives being carried out over the years.

PS The Children executive director Mariza Abdulkadir said the insignificant reduction in such pregnancies was due to public programmes that do not address the root cause of the problem.

“They are usually abstinence based programmes that do not equip teens with the information to protect themselves, ” she said.

Mariza said there is a need to have information on safe sex such as a comprehensive sex education.

“Comprehensive sex education has been shown to be effective in lowering teen pregnancies and other sexual health concerns, ” she said.

Mariza noted that the stigma of teen pregnancies, which creates fear and anxiety in teenagers, makes it difficult for them to reach out for help, adding that it was necessary then for these youngsters to be provided with a comprehensive sex education.

Women’s Aid Organisation executive director Sumitra Visvanathan concurred, saying that giving them access to a comprehensive sex education would work towards preventing unwanted pregnancies.

“What works is age-appropriate sex education. It increases safe sex and delays sexual activity among teenagers. There is no evidence that sex education increases sexual activity, ” she said.

Sumitra said access to contraception must increase as contraceptive prevalence rate in Malaysia remains low at around 50% and had not increased much since 1984.

Voice of the Children chairman Sharmila Sekaran said society needs to be honest and acknowledge that a large number of teenagers are having pre-marital sex.

She noted that the current sexual reproductive health education in schools is not sufficient.

“Yes, it is being taught but when we speak to school children, it is like a one-liner on the subject. So, what is being taught is not getting to them, ” she said.

Sharmila said that teaching sexual reproductive health is not encouraging teenagers to engage in sexual intercourse.

“When it is put into the syllabus, we teach them how to say no, how to guide them away from sexual activity which relates to pregnancies, ” she said.

Understanding why teenage pregnancies happen is also important, she said, adding that this is currently not being done.

Sharmila said there needs to be more effort to offer teenagers with opportunities to do meaningful things such as through community centres where they can participate in games, art, and dance.

As for the decline in pregnancies amongst teenagers who are married, Sharmila noted that teenagers who are legally married have a lot more access to information such as healthcare, family planning, and sexual reproductive health.

There is more guidance and information available for them as there is no stigma for these teenage girls if they are pregnant since they are legally married, she added.

Despite the decline in overall teenage pregnancies which is attributed to fewer child marriages, Sharmila said the numbers has not decreased fast enough.

Deputy Women, Family and Community Development Minister Hannah Yeoh said she was aware of the stigma unmarried pregnant teenagers faced and the limitations in dealing with them.

Yeoh said she would be working closely with Deputy Education Minister Teo Nie Ching in closing the gaps in sex education content that was being taught in schools.

“Now, the subject is being taught in Form Three but compulsory education stops at 12 years old.

“These are the gaps that we want to close because after 12 years old, some of them would drop out. So, even with the syllabus in school, they would not know about it.

“We also want to close the gap where some teachers are not comfortable teaching (the subject), ” she said.

Yeoh said children below age 12 have access to gadgets and video streaming sites such as YouTube, noting that they might learn sexual activity from such content.

Hence, she said it was crucial for age appropriate sex education materials to be taught in schools.

“Statistics show that children at the age of 12 to 13 are already sexually active, there must be that closure of gap where you have to review your content. We have to catch up because if we don’t educate them they are going to learn it online, ” she said.- Star