Sex Education in Schools

Objectives: To assess the felt needs, level of knowledge and the impact of health education sessions over the period of one year regarding reproductive health among ninth standard school students of a slum area in Mumbai.

Material and Methods: The study is school based interventional follow up study.Health education sessions on reproductive health were conducted. Pre test, immediate post test, along with a follow up post test at six months and one year after intervention were administered. SPSS Version 17 and Excel software were used for analysis. Paired‘t’ test and Chi-square test were applied.

Results: Base line knowledge in all aspects of reproductive health was observed to be very low as compared to the post tests. Knowledge was retained over the period of one year in questions pertaining to physical changes in boys and girls, female anatomy and role of female in sex determination.However significant loss (p<0.01) of the acquired knowledge was observed in questions pertaining to hormones, night emissions and masturbation. Need for sex education was perceived by 99.24 % students. Preferred class for initiation were sixth and seventh (24.09% and 43.39% respectively). Doctors (83.02%) were the most preferred sources of information.

Conclusions: Health education sessions are very effective in increasing knowledge. However, students tend to lose information regarding certain aspects as time progresses. Students are in need of scientific information from lower classes.

Current state law creates the risk that, if sex education is not provided to a child in public school, no similar instruction will be given to the child. Legislatively enacted opt-out provisions give parents broad control over their child's education by granting them the option to have their child excused from any sex education requirements within a public school's curriculum. Through public school sex education, professionals provide youth information aimed at protecting them from the dangers of pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). A stricter statutory opt-out provision should be enacted by state legislatures that only allows parents to excuse their child from sex education after a parent attends a 90-minute STD prevention course and receives the instructional material used in the school's sex education curriculum. Parents should be provided up-to-date information and a structural framework designed by the school to encourage them to discuss with their child the many sexual issues addressed within a school's sex education curriculum.

Relationships and sexuality education for young people in Australia and elsewhere is a controversial topic. Numerous studies in Australia have focused on curriculum, policy, teachers, schools, sexting and other behaviours, and knowledge regarding sexually transmitted infection (STI)/human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and pregnancy prevention. Few large-scale national studies have engaged with young people about what they want out of their sex education, and what they suggest would be most valuable for future programs in Australia. Data for the study included qualitative comments about experiences of sex education (n = 2316) provided in a national survey of adolescent sexual health. An initial thematic inductive analysis identified comments falling into two dominant themes: positive and negative experiences of their sex education. Results indicate that young people in Australia are articulate and understanding of the gaps in their sex education. A majority of comments highlighted neg...

How does heteronormativity become visible within the discourse of LGBTTIQ-support activists at the school? Using data from non-moderated group discussions among schoolchildren aged between 14 and 18, who were involved in LGBTTIQ support projects in different schools within the German Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia, the article reconstructs how concepts of norms and normality, heteronormativity, difference and otherness are being articulated by the students. A sequential analysis of the group discussions is used to detect the meaning of norms and normality with respect to LGBTTIQ identities, to highlight the way in which LGBTTIQ-supporters are constantly being subjected to this discourse. Simul-taneously it detects a concealed conflict between the goal setting of LGBTTIQ support and heteronormative discourse. The paper underlines the mechanisms of problematizing LGBTTIQ-identities by students and framing them as non-normality, thus showing the power of heteronormative discourse, the very discourse young LGBTTIQ-supporters are trapped in and trying to cope with.

It is estimated that 23% of the girls in secondary schools in Kenya drop out of school each year as a result of teenage pregnancy. Findings of the Kenya Aids Indicator Survey of 2007 indicate that the HIV and STI prevalence rate is 7 for Rift Valley province, that is, 7 out of every 1000 people have HIV and STI. The drop-out rate for girls in Uasin Gishu district is 2.1% while that of boys’ stands at 2.4%, according to Uasin Gishu development plan 2002 -2007. This is attributed to factors such as HIV, STIs and teenage pregnancies among others. In response to the rising number of HIV, STIs and teenage pregnancies and the resultant dropout rates in schools, the Ministry of Education intended to introduce sex education in secondary schools in Kenya to create awareness on the consequences of sex abuse in order to reduce school dropout rate on teenage pregnancies and STIs related infections. Debates on introduction of Sex Education in schools rages on and a lot of studies have been done on the pros and cons of this. But the opinion of children has not been sought. However, the intentions of the ministry were not realized because religious groups opposed it. In African indigenous culture, children are not consulted in decision making, but according to the United Nations Convention of 1989, children have a right to access information, participate and take responsibility in the society. Hence, need to seek their views. Therefore, this study sought to find out the perception of secondary school students on the need for sex education in secondary schools in Eldoret municipality, Kenya. Perceptions are vital since they shape students behaviour and attitudes towards their sexuality as well as morality. The research design for this study was a cross sectional descriptive survey aimed at collecting qualitative and quantitative primary data from students on their perceptions on the need for sex education. This was done through structured questionnaires and focus group discussions. A sample of 325 students was obtained through stratified and simple random sampling. The findings of the study showed that 53% of the students perceived the need to introduce of Sex Education in schools and so the idea is perhaps worth revisiting. The researcher therefore concludes that many students’ perceptions’ towards introduction of sex education in secondary schools is positive.

Objective: To assess an intervention to familiarise parents with children’s books for use in primary (5–11 years) sex and relationship education (SRE) classes.
Method: Case study of a 7-week programme in one London primary school, using ethnographic observation, semi-structured interviews and focus groups with parents (n=7) and key stakeholders (n=4), and pre- and post-programme self-completion questionnaires (n=9).
Results: Parents reported increased understanding of the SRE curriculum and awareness of relevant children’s books, enhanced interactions with their children on SRE topics and some positive effects on partners and attitudes towards the school. There was increased confidence in addressing issues in the SRE curriculum for parents of 8- to 10-year-olds, although reduced confidence for one mother.
Conclusions: Familiarising parents with materials has the potential to enhance SRE, by improving coherence between educators’ and parents’ messages to children about sex and relationships, increased discussion of SRE topics in parent–child conversations and reduced parental anxiety about topics such as sexual orientation. Future challenges of involving fathers, scalability and sustainability highlight the dilemma of how best to enable parental choice or make equalities interventions.
Keywords: Children, England, parents, primary education, sex and relationship education, sex education.