Sex Education Will Part
of 2009 School Program,
Education VP Announced
The Ministerio de
Educación Pública (MEP)
has announced that it
will expand sex
education in the
classroom next year,
teaching in the students
how to use a condom,
sexual pleasure without
coitus, life as a couple
and social relations,
among some of the
subjects.
The vice-minister of
education, Alejandrina
Mata, said that
beginning in the 2009
school year there will
be "an adequate sexual
education" in all
primary and secondary
schools with the idea to
clear many of the doubts
about sex that students
have.
The Instituto de
Estudios
Interdisciplinarios de
la Niñez y la
Adolescencia de la
Universidad Nacional (UNA)
has been given the
responsibility to define
the subjects, the
education level and
material that will be
used in the classroom.
Using a wooden penis
students will be taught
the correct use of the
condom, among many of
the subjects on sex that
will form part of the
sex education
curriculum.
Currently, schools teach
the aspects of biology,
learning about the
reproductive organs and
sexual transmitted
diseases and not the use
of contraceptives or
dispel doubts and myths
about sex.
"Sex education has been
only to teach preventing
unwanted pregnancies or
avoid promiscuity", said
Mata.
Ana Teresa León,
director of the UNA,
added that sex education
has to be integrated and
include human
development, the focus
on biology has not had
effect.
According to information
by the Instituto
Nacional de Estadística
y Censo (INEC), in 2007
there 500 new mothers
under the age of 15 and
13.981 new mothers
between the age of 15
and 19, representing 19%
of all births.
In addition, 28% of AIDS
cases are of those
between the age of 15
and 30.
León added that in
preparing the sex
education program that
will be more than just a
manual, they will
consult with parents,
teachers and students.
The Catholic Church has
not been taken into
account in this project,
according to Federico
Cruz Cruz, of the
Conferencia Episcopal.
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