Premier research institute for HIV/AIDS designs model curriculum to impart sex advice in educational institutes, to discuss matters at a national-level meeting in New Delhi on July 26
Premier research institute for HIV/AIDS designs model curriculum to impart sex advice in educational institutes, to discuss matters at a national-level meeting in New Delhi on July 26
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Come July 26 and a team of researchers from the city's National Aids Research Institute (NARI), is set to demand inclusion of sex education as compulsory subject in school curriculum. Dr Seema Sahay, deputy director, at the institute has worked on a module that was tested across various schools in six sites across the country, one of them being the city.
Let's talk about sex: NARI has also prepared a list of FAQs by students.
Representation pic/Thinkstock images
Sahay will present the book that contains the model curriculum for teaching children about sexual health and life skills information at a national level conference in New Delhi on July 26 to discuss the subject of sex education in schools. According to NARI, apart from officials from health and education ministry, officials from National Aids Control Organisation, National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT), United Nation Children's Fund (UNICEF) and other national organisations would be part of this meeting.
"The study started three years ago and NARI conducted the study across six schools in and around the city. We took a mix of urban, rural, co-education and convent schools to establish a healthy mixture of views. The main observations are that adolescents are extremely curious and will go to any lengths to obtain sexual health information and are even open to experimenting at times. They prefer parents to be the source of information, but both parents and teachers are reluctant to talk about sex education as they have reservations," said Sahay.
Dr R S Paranjape, director of NARI, said that the study shows the importance of imparting correct information to adolescents as they are at a high-risk status. "Of the study group, more than 80 per cent of adolescents said they wanted information about reproductive health and sexuality. But only 10 per cent reported getting that information and most of that they knew from either the Internet or peers. Seeking information is fine, but most of the times, there is gap in data which can prove risky," said Paranjpe.
During the survey, students were handed out a booklet of questions which they answered and were also told to list questions they had in mind. According to Sahay, a bank of more than 1000-odd frequently asked questions has been prepared and some of them are scandalous even for researchers.
"We didn't think that students could think like this. Some of the questions were downright naughty and can be dismissed but some were very explicit and yet needed to be answered, as they are serious. In the course of the survey we also worked with parents and teachers who had lot of initial reservations but later agreed that children needed this information. We are also documenting the process of convincing this group to agree to sex education which is also an important hurdle to cross and can help others," said Sahay.
Parents have given suggestions on the syllabus and decided the order in which chapters should be taught.
"What we are suggesting are participatory sessions for Class IX and XI. We have divided the curriculum into six chapters and each chapter will take one class of two hours each. Hence the syllabus can be completed in six weeks with one class per week. Also we are strongly suggesting no exam or tests for this subject," said Sahay.
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