Early start on facts of life for Year 1 pupils

 

A primary school class in session.

PETALING JAYA: Pupils entering Year 1 will have an early start in knowing the facts of life with the education ministry issuing guidelines for teaching the seven-year-olds to understand and protect their private parts.

A special teaching kit has been designed for the first month of school, which will start next week.

Various programmes will be held in the first two weeks, designated as the Adjustment Phase. These will focus on getting the children to know each other and preparing them for formal schooling.

My Body Belongs To Me will be among the subjects that will be taught in the following two weeks, known as the Readiness Phase.

In its Transition Programme Kit for Year One 2.0, the ministry says the students must be taught to recognise the private parts of a male and female with the assistance of pictures. It has listed the names of the organs in Malay.

“Students must discuss the similarities and the differences between the sexual organs of males and females based on pictures,” it says.

According to the guide, these are some of the questions that students should discuss:

• Can one show your private parts to others? If not, why?
• Can others touch your private parts? If not, why?
• Can one look at the sexual organs of others?

“Teachers must emphasise to the students the body organs that can be exposed and those that need to be covered,” it says. “Students must be told that their private parts must be covered with underwear.”

A teacher told FMT such lessons used to be taught progressively until Year Six, when pupils would be exposed to the subject of reproduction.

“So far, we have not had to do this in the first few weeks of the transition period,” he said. “But I guess this is a positive move so that the young ones are aware of the need to respect their bodies, especially with the increasing number of molest and rape cases involving children.”

Parents contacted by FMT mostly welcomed the move. One said that teaching children about “bad touches” at an early age could prevent sexual abuse.

A mother with a daughter entering Year One said: “It is vital that teachers tread with caution and ensure the subject does not become a joke or a laughing matter among the students. The parents must play a vital role in complementing the teaching.” - FMT