On sexual health

Ms. Amalia B. Cabusao Editor-in-Chief of Mindanao Times Ponciano corner Palma Gil Streets Davao City, Philippines

Dear Ms. Cabusao:

We are members of St. Nicholas: For the Betterment of the Filipino Youth, a small organization of students that aim to mold and navigate the young Filipinos by means of helping them gain knowledge and skills that are needed in order for them to define their sexuality and in knowing how to manage one’s sexual health. In connection to this, we are asking for your support in the widespread and strict implementation of sexual education as part of the curriculum of elementary and high school students in the Philippines.

Over the years, there has been an alarming rise in teenage pregnancy rates and attainment of sexual diseases, specifically HIV, among Filipinos. One of the factors that became a catalyst in the emergence of these issues is the lack of proper knowledge and education regarding sexuality and reproductive health in the Philippines. Due to the need to inhibit the continuous rise of these incidences, the Department of Education enforced a comprehensive sexuality education policy for the youth, entailing the implementation of sex education in the school curriculum of basic elementary and high school students. However, this policy received backlash from the masses primarily because human sexuality in the Philippines has always been a sensitive topic among Filipinos who are known to be conservative in nature, considering that 86 percent of the population is Roman Catholic.

Furthermore, it is yet to be emphasized that despite the recent implementation of DepEd’s Order No. 31 s. 2018 or the Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) Policy, the education department has not yet developed the minimum standards of comprehensive sexual education that schools should comply with, therefore, it is still lacking in many aspects.

In accordance with the policy, sex education is integrated into the following learning areas: Personal Development, Science, Araling Panlipunan and Physical Education. However, Geronimo (2016) from Rappler had revealed that the panel of consultation experts including teachers, parents, RH providers and the adolescents themselves have not yet accepted the CSE standards despite DepEd already implementing CSE as part of the K-12 curriculum. It is essential that the teachers themselves would be open and comfortable enough to teach such a serious and supposedly open-minded topic to students, especially children, since they are the ones who are expected to guide them down the right path. While a number of schools do teach sex education, various schools still have not integrated sex education as part of their school curriculum due to the numerous misconceptions about the aforementioned subject and one of them is the possible increase in sexual activity among teenagers.

It is a common notion for most people that with the integration of sex education as part of the educational curriculum, students may engage into sexual intercourse earlier and more often since this matter is no longer new to them. There is also a huge possibility that students may encounter the feeling of overpowering ease, comfortability, and curiosity to having sexual intercourse that is likely to manipulate the kind of mindset they have regarding sexual intercourse. In the Philippines, problems brought up by irresponsible engagement in sexual intercourse inflates every year. Problems such as teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases (STD) resulted to an increase in poverty and abortion rates each year. The Commission on Population (2019) stated that, about 500 teenage girls give birth

every day as more adolescents engage in premarital sex. Moreover, the Department of Education (2009) emphasized that the Philippines has one of the fastest growing number of HIV cases worldwide. Both statements imply that the country’s knowledge level in responsible and proper sexual education is subpar in comparison to countries like Sweden, France, Netherlands, Denmark, and Belgium, that integrated sex education as part of their curriculum wherein such cases of teenage pregnancy and HIV cases are very minimal as compared to countries without sex education in their curriculum. This shows that there is a disparity on how sex education was put into effect in the school curriculums of foreign countries as compared to ours, thus, there is a pressing need for enhancement in the current implementation of sex education in the Philippines to better improve the state of our country’s development. It also justifies the demand for the youth to be given a broader perspective and understanding on proper sexual education in response to the diversity of students’ needs. As mentioned by Commission on Population (2019), the strict implementation of sex education will help facilitate our country’s population in downsizing its growth while also contributing to the issue in positioning a step-down to the Philippines as the country with the fastest growing number of HIV cases worldwide. As it was common conceptualized by most people that with the integration of sex education in the school curriculum the possibility of engaging into sexual intercourse will further be enhanced, it is only fitting for us to illuminate the need to strengthen the knowledge of the students on the possible consequences of their sexual activity. It is also essential that sex education should be taught by professionals. Parents can teach their children their values regarding sex, but updated forms of contraception and the likes should be taught by professionals. According to Stay Teen Organization (2019), sex education is the same as calculus, it is a knowledge that should be made available to everyone, and should be an integral part of a child’s education wherein they would be more informed about their choices whilst retaining their values. He also added that, children could still retain the values taught to them by their parents and know how to use condoms and other forms of contraception. But parents do not often have correct information and instructions, and are therefore not able to give their kids the skills and knowledge they need in taking necessary precautions regarding their sexual activity. With the aid of trained professionals, students will be given the most up-to-date and effective information on how to prevent pregnancy and STIs. Our organization would like to appeal a few things that we can put into action — one of them involving the hiring of teachers or professors that are fit to teach sexual education. Current teachers who are interested in teaching the subject may attend seminars regarding this topic in order to hone their abilities and confidence to teach students with ease and no hesitancy. Parents may also participate in orienting their children about sex education, which can serve as an overview to the topic they are to discuss further once it is tackled down in their own respective schools. Through various discussions, parents and children alike will come up with a better understanding and will be able to open up to each other about what we consider a sensitive topic. In addition to this, having knowledge about the subject will help lessen poverty and create family planning more effective. In this way, teenagers will be able to know their limitations and consequences of their actions. The government should also give emphasis on the importance of sex education in various learning areas such as MAPEH (Music, Arts, Physical Education, and Health) and Personal Development. Since limited topics about sex education have already been discussed, it is also essential to broaden the course outline of the subject itself so that students at an early age would know the risks and of having unsafe intercourse and would be mindful in making their decisions. Sex should be regarded as something not evil or malicious, but rather as a physiological need necessary for human survival. It is something that would inevitably happen to most people, especially among teenagers who are curious in nature and are uninformed about the subject matter. This is why our organization is writing to you to express our concerns to develop a strict implementation of sex education as part of the curriculum of elementary and high school students in the Philippines immediately. It is true that a law regarding our concern was already implemented, however it has yet to achieve the minimum standard of what and how sex education should really be taught in schools. Sex education in the Philippines only covers limited topics and as a result, the cases of HIV and unwanted teenage pregnancy continues to increase as misconceptions about the subject matter arises. We hope that this paper would reach to you and gain your support so that immediate action will be taken regarding the concerns stated by this paper which then will significantly benefit our country and our youth’s well-being. Thank you and God bless.

Yours Sincerely,

Deanielle Cecile Abjelina Daniel Luis Aguado Rania Bea Salazar Ferdinand Thomas LP Soller Ma. Angelina Gabrielle Viloria Mary Grace Zaldarriaga Bhea Jeska Zerda St. Nicholas: For the Betterment of the Filipino Youth