Teachers not comfortable tackling sex education — DepEd

Teachers are not confident and comfortable teaching sexuality and reproductive health although they are mandated to do so by Reproductive Act 10354 or the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health (RPRH) law, an official of the Department of Education (DepEd) said over the weekend.

DepEd Undersecretary Alberto Muyot said this could be one of the hindrances in the implementation of the controversial law.

“It looks easy, you just have to integrate it in the curriculum. That is actually the easiest part here. What is very difficult is to have ‘adequately trained teachers’ to teach,” Muyot said during a recent scientific meeting of the AIDS Society of the Philippines.

Section 14 of RA 10354 mandates DepEd to formulate a curriculum that can be used both in public and private schools.

During their meetings with teachers, Muyot said, a majority of them admitted they do not like to teach RPRH because their knowledge on the subjects is limited.

“They are not confident because, according to them, their students know more when it comes to these topics,” he said.

The teachers also admitted that child and adolescent development was barely discussed when they took up elementary and secondary education degrees in college.