Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2004. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Bangkok Post - November 30, 2004
Sirikul Bunnag Onnucha Hutasingh
The ministry admitted that teaching sex education as part of the general curriculum proved a total failure.
After three years of implementaion, most schools still could not do it right, said the ministry's permanent secretary Khunying Kasama Varavarn at a workshop on sex education.
There were frequent reports of sexual harassment against girls in primary school from the fourth to sixth grades and indecent sexual behaviour among students in junior secondary schools, she said.
A good sex education programme must be constructive, beneficial to students and acceptable to their parents, she said.
At least 2,000 primary and secondary schools nationwide will be selected next year for the project to develop a new model for teaching sex educationn, Khunying Kasama said. Executives and teachers of participating schools will be trained on how to give proper and effective sex education.
"We want every district to have from two to four primary and secondary schools that serve as model schools for sex education," she said. "They should have teachers who can teach sex subjects with clear understanding about the problems faced by students."
The ministry will seek help from sex education experts, including the Programme for Appropriate Technology in Health, or PATH which is a non-profit, international organisation dedicated to better public health.
Programme contents should focus on proper roles of men and women, their values, physical changes experienced by the young, and self-care tips.
Khunying Kasama said the ministry expects to expand the project to cover 10,000 schools in two years. These model schools would help coach the remaining schools. Currently, the ministry runs more than 20,000 primary and secondary schools.
Khunying Kasama said intensified sex education should begin with 4th-6th grade students since schoolboys in these levels tend to harass their female peers.
Also, improper sexual behaviours were found mostly among junior high school students, she quoted a study by the Public Health Ministry.
Meanwhile, the two ministries will join hands to teach students about safe sex practices and how to avoid unwanted sex and related diseases, Public Health Minister Sudarat Keyuraphan said.
Their cooperation was prompted by a survey by the Public Health Ministry released yesterday which showed the majority of teenage girls in the country tended to ignore safe sex practices.
The survey showed 70% of teenage girls agreed to having sex without condom.
The survey conducted among 6,730 teenage girls found that about one-fifth of the respondents had had sexual affairs, 70% of them without any means of protection. Of the total, 7% had their first sexual experience before they were 15.
Also, it was found that one-fourth of the respondents had changed sexual partners more than twice in one year.
Mrs Sudarat said teenagers and women will also be the main focus of the Public Health Ministry's campaign marking World's Aids Day this year.
She said the HIV infection rate had dropped among sex workers but was increasing among teenagers, most of whom were still in school.
Of 40 million people living with HIV/Aids worldwide, 12 million are young people and more than half of the infected are women aged 15-24, according to the World Health Organisation.
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