Opinion: Sex ed should be mandatory in schools

The conservative culture and with more than 80% of Filipinos having Roman Catholic as their
religion, make it difficult to fully implement comprehensive sexuality education in Philippines' school
curriculum. Comprehensive sexuality education is a curriculum-based process of teaching and learning about
the cognitive, emotional, physical and social aspects of sexuality. -UNESCO It aims to teach children and
young people about their health; well-being and dignity; developing respectful social and sexual relationships;
considering how their choices affect their own well-being and that of others; and understanding and ensuring
the protection of their rights throughout their lives.
Many argued including the Catholic Church that teaching sexuality education would only destroy the
innocence of the youth and would even increase the number of students engaging in sexual activities, but
figures say otherwise. In the 2017 National Demographic and Health Survey by PSA, 9 percent of women 15
to 19 years old have begun childbearing. PopCom or the Commission on Population and Development also
urged President Duterte to declare adolescent pregnancy as a national emergency, because 1.2 million teens
are giving birth each year. According to a study, these numbers were attributed to lack of awareness and
proper education among young people together with poverty. Although some schools are already teaching
sex education, it is not yet compulsory in the Philippines.
In my opinion, mandating sexuality education in schools' curriculum will not only curb teenage
pregnancy, but will also prevent the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases, and will stop the growing
number of women resorting to abortion because of unwanted pregnancy. A study about the effectiveness of
comprehensive sexuality education conducted in 2017 by the German Federal Centre for Health Education,
showed that nine countries in Europe with CSE programs tend to have lower teenage fertility rates than
countries without CSE programs (6.9 vs 18.1 births per 1,000 women aged 15–19 years). In addition to this,
UNESCO emphasized the significant evidence on the impact of sexuality education. First, sexuality education
has positive effects, including increasing young people’s knowledge and improving their attitudes related to
sexual and reproductive health and behaviors. Second, sexuality education also does not increase sexual
activity, sexual risk-taking behavior or STI/HIV infection rates.
Philippines still has a long way to go in embracing a liberal mindset, but now is the time to open our
eyes with the reality that a growing number of young people are already engaging in sexual activities and
this could turn worse if government fails to provide a formal medium for them to learn about their sexual
health. Hiding them away from the reality of life would not protect them but will just make them vulnerable to
harmful sexual behaviors and sexual exploitation. Teens should be informed on the consequences of
engaging in sexual activities and unprotected sex for them to grow more sexually responsible. Because if we
can teach Math to help students solve real life problems, then we should also teach sexuality education for it
is proven to give solutions to this alarming real life problem that our country is facing.
Guidance about non-sexual relationships should be introduce during the early years of schooling
while sexual and reproductive health should be introduced to junior and senior high school. In college, I
believe that family planning should be introduce. CSE should be taken up with active participation of parents
to properly guide their children and also to be informed on how they can teach it at home. This can also help
in promoting open communication between parents and children. Since online class is the new set-up of
learning, DepEd and CHED should utilize the digital spaces in educating the youth on CSE and to expose
students in right information that will prevent them from believing in false information they read on the internet.

China May G. Sabangan

BSED3-ENGL1