Sex Education in the Philippines

The planned inclusion of sex education in both primary and secondary schools has started  a great deal of  debates in the Philippines. Since the proposed incorporation of sex education in elementary and high school curriculum pushed by Education Secretary Mona Valisno, various groups have started to voice out their opinion either agreeing or disagreeing with the said notion.

Many of the inhabitants of the Philippines, a country known to be the center of Catholicism in Asia and a very conservative country sees this proposal as an aggressive act that will result to catastrophic damages. Moreover, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), a governing body of the Roman Catholic  Church in the Philippines believe that such act will promote pre-marital sex and propagate immoral ideas and virtues.

The author of this article greatly appreciates and respects the views of the conservatives but let us not close all of the doors for the said proposal, though in the first look, the proposal is so negative but thinking twice and listening first to the views of the opposite side before deciding to be against or pro is a better way of coming up with the best decisions.

First, is there really a problem and will the inclusion of sex education to education curriculum solve such problem? As the data provided by the Forum for Family Planning and Development Inc. show, there are two million teenage Filipina girls who are pregnant at this moment while more than four million Filipinos aged 15-19 have already had sexual intercourse (most don't even know safes sex). Thus, such figures will show you the possibility of future increase in abortion and over-population because of unwanted pregnancy, not only that, there will be more drop-outs (mostly in women) among high school students which will also increase the number of the out of school youth and will inevitably cause a big problem in the Philippine economy, a state classified as a third world country. Moreover, not knowing proper and safe sex will also increase the number of AIDS victims and many other sex-related sickness , it’s a fact that most male teenagers involve themselves into unsafe sex such as going to bars and sleeping with women they don’t even know without using any protection. See, even just having lack of knowledge about sex can lead into a very disturbing domino effect.

Sex education will teach teenage Filipinos safe sex and is a very effective tool in fighting the very prevalent problems stated above. Sex education promotes ideas such as the right time to marry, the burdens of being a single/teenage mother and the fine line that separates love and lust.

On the other hand, most of the conservatives look at the proposal with closed eyes and ears, just hearing the topic “sex-education” already is for most of them immoral without even listening or trying to analyze why some people agree to it.

Their very main argument is that sex education will promote premarital sex to teenagers and will lessen the degree of morality among Filipino teenagers.

As to the promotion of premarital sex, sex education is not the promoter but is the solution for it. Teenagers and children even before reaching 10 years of age already have an idea on how to do sex even without sex education so this problem must not be blamed on the proposal, such acts are learned mostly in watching TVs, internet pornography which is very rampant and even sharing of experiences peers. Let’s be realistic, no matter how we say that we are in a conservative country, it’s a fact that children even in young age already know how to use their organs. Accepting that there is a problem is the first step in solving it, sex-education will open teenagers minds on the effects of engaging in pre-marital sex and unsafe sex and will be a daily reminder that there is proper time and way to do things.

Also, the church argues with the reasoning of morality but morality is not the issue here, it’s the health and the future of the young Filipinos, the state must approve and impose acts and rules just by looking if it’s for the welfare of the people and not if it’s moral or immoral according to the church; it’s clearly stated in Article 2 Section 6 of the Philippine Constitution (1987) that “the separation of church and state shall be inviolable”.

Sex education is not about having sex, it's about understanding how can premature sexual intercourse affect our lives. It's more like a tried and tested revivalist's technique; "first take the sinners on a tour of hell, after which heaven would appear more inviting."