By Sanjay Sharma, IANS
Bhopal : In the land of erotic temple sculptures, the debate on sex education continues. An NGO in its latest survey has said the majority of teachers in Madhya Pradesh schools are not against the subject but want a change in the way it is taught.
The survey by the Madhya Pradesh Voluntary Health Association (MPVHA) says that 73 percent of teachers, both male and female, want sex education to be imparted to children at the school level.
According to MPVHA director Mukesh Sinha. the findings call for a change in policies.
“The findings of the survey are an eye-opener since one of the important grounds on which sex education was stopped in schools was that teachers were not interested,” claimed Sinha.
While Madhya Pradesh is home to Khajuraho, famous for its erotic temple sculptures, sex education in the state’s schools was stopped in March last year following instructions from Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. This came after protests against graphics and pictorial descriptions used in the adolescent education programme (AEP) course material.
Some 3,000 of the 8,000 schools in the state were covered under the AEP, which was directed at sensitising students on biological changes associated with the onset of adolescence and on AIDS.
But the controversy over what was said to be sexually explicit material in the teaching kit forced the government to stop it. The groups opposing AEP argued that it was too early for Class 9 and 11 students to study about sex.
The teachers contacted during the MPVHA survey, however, seemed receptive to the idea.
While 31 percent said sex education in schools would provide the right information to students, 24 percent said it would help them in taking the right decision about their life and 19 percent said it would protect them from abuse, infections and other problems.
But they seemed to be concerned over the methodology to be adopted to impart sex education among school students.
“Instead of sex education, it should be taught as a chapter on health and be included in the curriculum of science,” advocated a number of teachers contacted by the survey team.
Another interesting finding of the survey was that 70 percent of women teachers contacted were in favour of sex education in schools.
Said Sinha: “When we conducted the survey, we realised the earlier sex education programme’s methodology was wrong. The whole focus was on promotion of condoms. What we suggest is a school health programme with a focus on hygiene, nutrition and sex education. Abruptly calling it off is not sensible.”
However, state School Education Minister Laxman Singh Gaud continues to be defiant on the issue.
When asked about his opinion on the re-introduction of sex education after the findings of the survey, he questioned, “What was the motive of conducting such a survey?”