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Sex Education in Schools

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Sex Education in Schools

 

Abstract

The prevalence of STIs, HIV, unwanted pregnancies and sexual violence has necessitated sexual education to children and youths. Sex education equips learners with knowledge concerning their sexual attitudes and beliefs, sexual identity, and relationships. Despite the usefulness of school-based sexuality education in addressing sexuality problems, there is still a massive controversy. The proponents of school-based sexual education argue that it reduces HIV and STIs prevalence and unwanted pregnancies. Also, sex education addresses the knowledge gap in the matters concerning sex and enables students to make better decisions on their sexuality. The opponents of school-based sexual education argue that sexuality education corrupts religious beliefs and morals. Also, these opponents claim that gaining much information about sex corrupts the innocence of the children. Besides, some opponents argue that sex education gives sexual ideas to students and triggers experimentation.  The paper uncovers that the belief that sex education leads to immorality is unfounded. Sexuality education empowers youths to improve the quality of their decisions. The analysis recommends the incorporation of sexuality education in the school curriculum to empower the students’ lives.

Keywords: Sex Education, Religion, STIs, Unwanted pregnancies, School-based Sex Education

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sex Education in School

Sex education is also referred to as sex and relationship education or sexuality education. It involves informing youths on beliefs and attitudes about sex, intimacy, sexual identity, and relationships. Sex education is a broad term related to education on sexual reproduction, human anatomy, reproductive health, sexual intercourse, emotional relations, reproductive responsibilities and rights, contraception, abstinence, and other aspects of an individual’s sexual behavior.  The primary aim of sex education is to enable learners to protect themselves from HIV and Aids, sexually transmitted diseases, sexual exploitation, unplanned pregnancies, and sexual abuse. Sex education is usually given by teachers, parents, caregivers, public health campaigns, and non-government organizations. Ideally, Rahmani et al. (2018) show that sex education should be given to children before adolescence and before forming their behavior patterns. Today, sexual education remains one of the most controversial issues with some community members supporting it while others oppose its appropriateness. The proponents of sexual education in schools argue that it helps youths and children develop a positive image of their sexuality and acquire skills and knowledge to maintain good sexual health. According to Maharani and Sanyata (2019), the contention about sexual education’s appropriateness arises when society seeks to establish who should educate students about sex and the content of sexuality education. The opponents argue that sex education increases children’s exposure to sex and activates their sexuality leading them to indulge in inappropriate sexual behavior. On the other hand, the supporters claim that factual information about sex, STIs, and contraceptives effectively deter students in engaging in unwanted and unprotected sex, hence reducing the prevalence of STIs and other complications. With the above contrasting views about sexuality education, this paper seeks to critically analyze the arguments on the advantages and disadvantages of sexual knowledge and demonstrate which side outweighs the other.

The proponents of sexuality education outline various advantages of sexual education on students and elders. Firstly, they argue that sex education helps in reducing the transmission of HIV and other STIs. According to Trudell (2017), the increasing prevalence of HIV and other STIs results from low knowledge of sexual matters. Trudell shows that sexuality education reduces these diseases by discouraging and unprotected sex and equipping students with protection skills.

Secondly, sexual education, especially practical knowledge of condoms and other contraceptives, helps reduce unwanted pregnancies. Lindberg et al. (2016) found that although sexual education did not significantly correlate with the reduction of STIs prevention, students under sexuality education programs recorded fewer unwanted pregnancies than those without formal education on the topic due to their increased knowledge of the use of contraceptives.

The proponent of sexual education expels the notion that sexual education stimulates sexual activities by arguing that it structures to deliver factual information without instilling moral values and judgments. Hall et al. (2016) found that adolescents seek sexual information that is non-perspective, clear, and non-judgmental.  The kind of unbiased information that the teenagers seek about sex in unlikely to come from religious entities and parents. Therefore, sexual education at school equips students with impartial and valuable information to make complex sex decisions.

Moreover, the proponents of sexual education at school argue that many parents are unlikely to offer comprehensive information about sex to their children due to diverse factors including little sexual knowledge, lack of practical communication skills, and differing sexual beliefs and values. In areas where parents cannot offer thorough sexual education due to the factors mentioned above, teens are forbidden to discuss sex, and their only source of information becomes television and peer groups, which can be misleading. Packer (2018) indicates that in such contexts, school-based sexuality education is crucial relationship information and sexual health, and it equips students with competencies to make future sound decisions.

Also, school-based sexual education proponents show that children and teens are curious about learning about sex.  Consequently, school-based sexual education has become a crucial tool in addressing the information gap between diverse groups of teens concerning sexual matters (Packer 2018). Failure to include sexuality education in schools makes students resort to other sources of information that might not be useful. Hall et al. (2016) show that sex education is vital in countering peer influences and media that shape the students’ minds on sexual matters. According to Lindberg et al. (2016), students who gain sexual information from peers and social media are likely to engage in immoral sexual behaviors. On the other hand, the teen who receives sexuality education from teachers and parents are less likely to engage in sexual conduct.

The opponents of school-based sexuality education mainly argue that it is against the religious and moral beliefs. Trudell (2017) show that sex education is offered in a secular context which ignores the religious and moral teachings. This argument reasons that sexuality education aims not to deter children from engaging in sex but provide an inclusive and comprehensive knowledge of sex.

Religion plays a crucial role in people’s lives, and Maharani and Sanyata (2019) show that participation in religious activities and religious commitment may lead to sexual abstinence. Therefore, religion has a positive influence on sexual initiation and attitudes among youths. Thus, the opponents of school-based sex education view it as a contradiction of the moral and religious values concerning sex.

School-based sexuality education enhances sexual knowledge acquisition to teens who may be ignorant or uninterested in the topic. Consequently, Rahmani et al. (2018) show that some conservative parents think that sexual education is inappropriate in children until adulthood. These parents believe that sexuality education can corrupt children’s behavior and raise their curiosity about sex. According to Hall et al. (2016), sexual education equips teens with too much sexual knowledge that gives youths various sexual ideas and triggers experimentation.

Besides, the opponents of school-based sexual education also argue that too much or inappropriate sexual education corrupts students’ innocence. However, this argument is unfounded as comprehensive sexuality education teaches abstinence, homosexuality, safe sex practices, and sexual diversity. The opponents of sexual education claim that since sex education is offered in a neutral environment, it does not provide enough guidance on the youths, and it leaves them to decide on their own.

There are various valid arguments, both supporting and opposing school-based sexual education. However, most of the opponents’ arguments are founded on the assumption that when students acquire sexual information, they will indulge in sexual activities. Lindberg et al. (2016) show that such beliefs have been in existence despite been disapproved by various studies. Rahmani et al. (2018) show that sex education has a considerable effect on sexual outcome or behavior.

In contrast, students are unlikely to engage in unsafe sex due to their acquired sexual knowledge. Despite the demerits of sexuality education outlined above, sexual education empowers the students and enables them to make sound decisions sex. The advantages outlined above show that sexuality education equips teens to develop competencies that reduce unwanted pregnancies and STIs prevalence.

In conclusion, this paper sought to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of school-based sexuality education.   From both the proponents and the opponents’ arguments, it is evident that sexuality education has merits and demerits. However, the analysis has shown that the advantages of school-based sexuality education far outweigh its disadvantages. The paper has demonstrated that the commonly held belief that sexual education stimulates sexual argues is unfounded, and it should be ignored. The report concludes that comprehensive sexual education is crucial for the youths’ empowerment and should be included in the school curriculum since it enhances the quality of their decisions concerning sex.

 

 

References

Hall, K. S., Sales, J. M., Komro, K. A., & Santelli, J. (2016). The state of sex education in the United States. The Journal of adolescent health: official publication of the Society for Adolescent Medicine58(6), 595.

Lindberg, L. D., Maddow-Zimet, I., & Boonstra, H. (2016). Changes in adolescents’ receipt of sex education, 2006–2013. Journal of Adolescent Health58(6), 621-627.

Maharani, L. N., & Sanyata, S. (2019). Media for sex education in elementary school: Which one is better? Psychology, Evaluation, and Technology in Educational Research1(2), 117-124.

Packer, C. (2018). Sex Education: Child’s Right, Parent’s Choice, or State’s Obligation? In of Innocence and Autonomy: Children, Sex and Human Rights (pp. 163-178). Routledge.

Rahmani, A., Merghati-Khoei, E., & Fallahi, A. (2018). Perceived advantages and disadvantages of sex education in young women: A qualitative study. International Journal of High-Risk Behaviors and Addiction7(2), 57-61.

Trudell, B. (2017). Doing sex education: Gender politics and schooling. Taylor & Francis.

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