Inter Press Service - November 7, 2002
Chayanit Poonyarat

Sometimes, she also shows her class how female condoms and home pregnancy kits are used.

Nakorn has been using non-conventional ways in her 23 years of teaching sex education, using frank, informal language and slang to get through to the more than 800 students she teaches at the all-male Suan Kularb school.

Her students also drop by Nakorn's office during breaks, to look at the books she has or to have a chat with her.

For her, that the old-fashioned approach of using bland, clinical and scientific language does not work in reaching out to youngsters in a country where talk of sex is often taboo.

"We have to make children feel that sex is a common matter, like when we talk about our hunger for food, so that they feel comfortable in seeking counselling on sex-related issues," says Nakorn Saniyothin, who teaches 11th grade students, most of them around 17 years old.

The tactic she recommends is to "speak the same language as students do and to keep an open mind". There is no right or wrong answer when talking about sex, and every question needs to be answered, no matter how private, she insists.

Key to her approach in handling her class is the realisation that Thai youngsters are trying out sex at earlier ages these days, and need correct information about reproductive health. Thus, Nakorn teaches students how to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).

But when she first introduced her up-front style to the school, teachers and parents fretted that the lessons would encourage premature sexual experimentation among students.

"Children do not need to be taught about sex. They would rather be taught about its ethical and moral aspects," says an on-line comment posted on a news website here.

But Nakorn believes that a lack of understanding about sexual issues is more risky, and more likely to lead young people to have unwanted pregnancies, abortions and STDs.

Indeed, "I'm not allowed to talk about sex at home because my parents see it as 'dirty talk'," says 18-year-old Anusorn Sa-ad-iam, echoing what many of her generation feel.

It has been two years since the education department introduced changes that required schools nationwide to offer a more open, well-rounded programme of sexual education. However, the ministry stopped short of offering course guidelines and left these programming decisions up to individual schools.

As a result, today, "sex education in most schools still treats the subject very scientifically, only making the students want to know more about sex," explains Usasinee Rewthong, an officer with the U.S.-based non-profit group, Programme for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH).

Usasinee also says education reforms have failed to turn around ignorance about condom use among teens.

A survey in 2000 conducted by 'Thai Rath', Thailand's biggest selling newspaper, found that on average, Thai youngsters are having sex between the ages of 14 to 18, with some having their first sexual experience at 13.

The 1999 Durex Global Sex Survey, sponsored by condom manufacturer Durex, found that among the 16 to 22 year-old Thais polled, 88 percent said they were worried about contracting HIV/AIDS but only 23 percent used condoms.

Ignorance and sex can be a troubling and sometimes deadly mix for young people, who are most at risk today.

Statistics from the ministry of public health show that last year, HIV/AIDS was the second leading cause of death among Thais aged 15 to 24. Health ministry figures also reveal that 300 to 350 babies are abandoned due to unwanted pregnancies each year.

Non-government organisations (NGOs) have been trying to produce and distribute their own guidebooks to address what they see missing in the school syllabus on sex education, but their efforts have met with opposition.

Early this year, a row erupted when the non-government Siam Care Organisation published its 'Handbook for Teenagers' for children aged 12 years and over, but the education ministry withheld its distribution because of 'inappropriate' language on issues like safe sex, birth control, menstruation and masturbation.

PATH also has projects that target not only students but high school-based sex educators. One project, which encourages students to talk openly about sexual issues, is showing that unwanted pregnancies among participating students have dropped, said Usasinee.

"It is like being full after eating rice. Once you find out all about it, you don't need to go and try it out or find out about it from somewhere else," a PATH student says. "In fact, it (sex education) makes you think that it should not be easy to decide to have sex because there are plenty of hassles that can result."

In 1993, a World Health Organisation (WHO) survey of 35 sex education projects showed that sex education in schools did not encourage young people to have sex at an earlier age or more frequently.

Rather, the survey showed that early sex education delays the start of sexual activity, reduces sexual activity among young people and encourages those already sexually active to have safer sex.

"I have never told my students not to have sex. Sex education is actually not a prohibition of sexual relationship. It is to equip our children with well-rounded knowledge about sex, to give them more alternatives," points out Nakorn.

In short, some youngsters say, they need correct information delivered effectively. "The more it (sex) is concealed, the more we (teenagers) want to know," says Anusorn. (END/IPS/AP/HE/ED/CP/AAG/JS/02)

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