Last year, the US state of Nebraska witnessed a series of discussions regarding the “sex education” lessons proposed by the state board of education, which included new standards that include issues such as sexual orientation, gender identity, and acceptance, according to the newspaper. Washington Post.
Countries around the world differ in the way they deal with teaching sex education, which is a taboo in some of them, such as the majority of Arab countries, while other countries seek to adopt it for several reasons, the most important of which are reproductive health and avoiding serious health and social problems.
The United States is among the countries where this issue is being debated. In its report on the proposed new standards in Nebraska, the Washington Post notes that a retired pediatrician said it was “not sex, as ordinary people know it”, and Sue Greenwald, a doctor, said the new standards would “cause children to become sexual victims.”
The letter won the support of Republican Governor Pete Ricketts and right-wing activists, prompting a wave of right-wing candidates for state and local school boards, who then “joined a broader anti-establishment insurgency that ousted the state’s Republican leaders”.
In general, the topics covered in sex education lessons in the United States vary, and states have different policies on how compulsory these lessons are for students, and most states consider them “recommended” rather than mandatory.
Sex education in American schools
The United States introduced sex education into schools in the fifties of the last century, but the beginning of the call for its introduction was since 1912, according to the website of the Foundation Rethinking Schools educational.
Although the US Department of Health supported, in 1940, the introduction of sexual education into the school curriculum, fierce debates continued on the subject for 30 years, as opponents did not want any form of sexual education in public schools.
Some say the sex lessons are “nasty” and a “dirty communist plot” and lead to increased sexual activity among teens.
But the site says evidence shows these programs “do not promote sex but actually helped delay sexual activity and reduce teen pregnancy rates.”
The lessons include a definition of the biological sexual relationship, as well as the means of preventing sexual diseases, methods of preventing pregnancy, and topics of sexual harassment and rape, and then began to introduce topics such as gender identity and sexual orientation in many American school districts.
Pupils in the West, such as Western European countries, the United States, Canada and Australia, receive a broad sexual education that starts from an early stage, as it begins in many school districts in the United States from the sixth or seventh grade (10-11 years) until the twelfth grade.
But in the early stages, teachers give students tips for preventing sexual assault and harassment, identifying and reporting the harasser, and identifying unwanted behavior, according to the legal website Find Law.
Europe
Sex education is mandatory in most EU member states, with the exception of Bulgaria, Cyprus, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and the United Kingdom, according to to study Issued by the European Parliament.
The study says that sex education aims to “disseminate general and technical information, facts and issues that create awareness and provide young people with the basic knowledge and training in communication and decision-making skills they need to define and enjoy sexuality physically and emotionally, and provides information to children, adolescents and young adults regarding sexuality and its potential negative consequences.” .
The study says that “content and quality differ from country to country and it is known that Nordic countries have the highest quality of sex education, while Eastern and Southern European countries have deficient or non-existent sex education programmes.”
“In Austria, parents include sex education lessons, in the Netherlands, sex education begins at the age of four, while in Poland, sexuality is a taboo at school as well as at home, and in Spain, the subject is rarely taught in schools in Rural areas”.
The site says: “In the case of sexually transmitted diseases, the United Kingdom, Slovakia and Spain are the most concerned, and in these countries, sexual education and sexual prevention campaigns have been observed to be insufficient or incomplete.”
Russia
A research published on the site says:Higher Education for Economics StudiesThe Russian At present, there is no sex education in Russia, despite the fact that in 2013 Russia ratified the introduction of sex education in schools.
Moreover, the results of several studies have shown that talking regarding sex is taboo in Russian society, according to the site.
China
Sex education was officially introduced in China, in 1985. The fourth grade students were shown artificial anatomical bodies and introduced to the concept of sexual reproduction.
site says South China Morning Post The Chinese said the country “has a national sexual illiteracy, and although the demand for sex education is on the rise, deeply rooted values may stand in the way of developing sex education, as many families do not believe that teens should date before college and think that the father should be decision maker in the family.
The site says that most Chinese children do not receive sex education that meets international standards, and the recent passage of a law requiring schools and kindergartens to adopt sex education is unlikely to change that anytime soon.
The revised Law on Protection of Minors, passed by China’s top legislature on October 17, provides for “age-appropriate sex education”, but it is unclear how the Chinese government plans to implement it.
According to UNESCO guidelines, “comprehensive sexuality education” should cover topics including relationships, gender equality, reproduction and risks of sexual behaviour, but China’s recently passed law, which was supposed to come into force on Universal Children’s Day, only mentions the prevention of sexual abuse.
India
In 2014, India’s health minister, Harsh Vardhan, announced his desire to ban sex education and suggested that yoga be taught in schools, according to the New York Times.
This declaration once morest sex education was in opposition to the 2007 Adolescent Health Education Program which was being promoted by the Indian National AIDS Organization and its Ministry of Human Resource Development, while Vardane opposed its inclusion in education because it was believed to be once morest traditional Indian values.
site said Deposit project The Indian that teachers were threatened with violence if they taught sexual education.
In 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a sex education programme. The site says this training is vital because India ranks third in the world’s HIV epidemic.
In these lessons, students learn regarding sexual violence and sexual health, among other topics, over a 22-hour period.
Arab countries
About a month ago, the Iraqi University of Diyala discussed a question for one of its researchers, saying: “Is it time to introduce sexual education topics in schools, or should we leave our children exposed to what is presented on social media?”
In the lecture, which was reported by Iraqi media, researcher Bushra Inad Mubarak said: “The topic (sex education) may not be beautiful and may hurt the heart, but this does not mean that we remain silent.”
A specialized educational scientific symposium on the basics of Diyala discussing sexual education for children as a solution to the problem of sexual harassment and a step to improve their sexual culture For children, a solution to the problem of sexual harassment and a step to improve their sexual culture) in the presence of the representative of the Diyala police commander, Brigadier General Nihad Muhammad Hassan, director of information for the governorate police, Brigadier Salah Adnan Ismail, director of community police in the governorate, members of the faculty and teaching council, and a large gathering of educators, specialists and students. The symposium, which was moderated by Prof. Dr. Muhannad Mohamed Abdel Sattar and attended by Prof. Dr. Bushra Inad Mubarak, aimed to prepare an educational curriculum concerned with sexual education as skills to be trained on by the child to protect his psychological and physical self from sexual harassment. The symposium included a discussion of several axes, represented by a number of questions and discussion regarding them, as follows: (Why sex education? Is sex education a solution to the problems of sexual harassment of children? What are the factors that led to the spread of the phenomenon of sexual harassment of children? Can sex education advance? The awareness of the child to reach a sexual culture consistent with the human instinct with which God Almighty created us to be in the future a healthy person psychologically, intellectually, socially and morally, and what is the role of the educational counselor in training the child on sexual education behaviors?) The symposium recommended the need to prepare an educational curriculum in cooperation with the Ministry of Education Higher education under the name of sexual education starting from the kindergarten stage all the way to the primary stage. The symposium suggested the necessity of circulating and supporting symposiums that address the problems of sexual harassment of children at the level of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, the media, human rights organizations and community police, not only within the university’s borders, but also all state institutions to spread a culture of awareness on this subject. At the end of the symposium, the Dean of the College, Prof. Dr. Abdul Rahman Nasser Rashid, presented the college’s shield to the lecturers in appreciation of their efforts in addressing these important and serious societal issues, wishing them further scientific advancement in the service of our governorate and our beloved country.
Posted by Iraqi Agency Now on Monday, May 30, 2022
There are no sex education curricula in Iraq and many other Arab countries, and third-grade students (15 years) study the “reproduction” chapter in the biology book, which contains an illustrated explanation of the anatomy of the male and female reproductive organs.
Usually, the lesson turns into an “embarrassing subject” that teachers “pass through quickly,” according to middle school biology professor Karim Abdel Hassan, who spoke with Al-Hurra.
In Egypt, the website says:alternative policy solutions. “Young people are relatively lacking in reproductive and sexual health information, such as human development, reproductive physiology, puberty, sexually transmitted diseases, and protection once morest HIV/AIDS.”
Only 34% of teens reported having communicated with their parents regarding puberty, while only half had heard of sexually transmitted diseases, according to a 2015 study cited by the site.
In Lebanon, Sheikh Muhammad Tawfiq al-Miqdad responded to calls to teach sex education in schools as “a major reason for the increase in forbidden relationships, the problems of abortion and early motherhood, and the early independence of the girl from her parents and her descent into the workplace and the battlefield of life at an early age,” adding in article: “We see in offering sex education… an invitation to pornography, dissolution, and deviation from the controls of Lebanese society.”
In 2019, Tunisia announced the inclusion of sexual education in school curricula, making it the first Arab country to include the subject in its curricula. Tunisia calls the article “education on sexual health”.
The challenges of teaching sex education
Wathiq Sadiq, a sociologist from Iraq, said in a statement to Al-Hurra that “Sex education is one of the issues that are kept silent in our Arab societies because of the principle of shame and embarrassment.”
At the same time, Sadiq says: “The most important question is: Do we have the trained cadres to teach this subject in a manner that takes into account the students’ ability to comprehend and their ages, and to deal with the subject in a scientific and accurate manner?”
He adds: “We need adequate and adequate time for training to give this kind of lessons,” stressing: “There is mention in science and biology subjects of some aspects of the subject, but the curriculum is short, and whoever teaches it is also a minor.”
While opponents of teaching sex education fear that teaching these topics will increase the child’s interest in them and thus expose him to situations “not appropriate for his age,” proponents say that “many young students pick up sexual health information from sources other than school, but public school is the best opportunity.” for teens to access the right information.
Various studies indicate that the rates of teenage pregnancy, the prevalence of sexual diseases, harassment and assault are greater in countries that do not study issues of health and sexual education or in countries that study them only.
points Opportunity The University of Southern California Department of Nursing referred to a 2008 study that concluded that when sex education included information regarding contraceptives, teenage girls had a lower risk of pregnancy than those who were given abstinence-only instruction or no sex education.
“The findings might alleviate the common fear among parents and teachers who are concerned that students are more likely to become more sexually active following receiving comprehensive sex education,” the site adds.
