Pia backs sex education in public schools

Sen. Pia Cayetano supported yesterday moves by the Department of Education (DepEd) to include sex education in all public schools in a bid to address unwanted pregnancies among teens and promote awareness of the spread of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and full-blown acquired immunodeficiency syndrome or AIDS.

At the DepEd, officer-in-charge Fe Hidalgo clarified that the sex education lesson guides were still being pilot-tested in two public high schools when the Roman Catholic Church criticized their use.

Hidalgo has ordered that the use of the lesson guides, intended for teachers assigned to teach the subject, be halted until a detailed evaluation and additional consultation with concerned groups can be done.

Meanwhile, the Philippine Legislators’ Committee on Population and Development Foundation (PLCPD) asked the DepEd to return to its original plan to integrate sex education in the high school curriculum, saying that withholding information on the subject is disadvantageous to students.

Cayetano, who studied in a co-educational private school in Alabang, Muntinlupa City during her elementary and high school days, said parents seldom discuss with their children matters concerning sex.

"I am for education per se. I understand the dilemma of the Catholic Church... (Matters like these should be) discussed by competent individuals (since) misinformation can lead to wrong decisions," she said during the Bulong Pulungan media forum at the Hotel Philippine Plaza yesterday afternoon.

But with the Philippines’ booming population, Cayetano said now is the time for the youth to understand the impact of having many children on a mother’s health and a family’s standard of living.

"One should know the effects of having babies... its economic side, and even emotional state of mothers," she said.

Since mothers are also career persons, Cayetano said educating mothers is needed to empower them with knowledge and give their children better lives.

She also said the Senate committee on health and demography, which she chairs, will conduct a series of hearings on various legislative measures on reproductive health and its different aspects beginning Thursday.

The initial hearing seeks to establish a general overview of the existing policies and programs of the government and the private sector on the different elements of reproductive health.

"We have to establish first if the existing programs have been able to carry out effectively the objective to educate people, promote awareness and deliver basic services related to reproductive health," Cayetano said. "Only then can we proceed into the details and identify which specific measures should be prioritized."

There are a total of 21 bills being considered by the committee in the conduct of the hearings. They are bills on maternal and child health nutrition; breast and reproductive health; men’s reproductive health; reproductive health and population management; adolescent reproductive health; and the prevention and management of abortion complications.

The DepEd recently proposed that sex education modules should be included as part of the curriculum of high schools in support of the population program of the United Nations Population Fund and recent studies indicating that the number of HIV/AIDS cases in the country have increased at a rate higher than what is officially recorded.

Yesterday, the DepEd’s Communications Unit released a press statement, saying that these lesson guides, which it referred to as "adolescent reproductive health modules," were not being used in public schools when the Catholic Church protested against their use.

"While we recognize the value of educating our students about their reproductive health, we also recognize that there are other stakeholders who are actively involved in the education of our young. The said modules were in a pilot stage when issues were raised against them and as part of the evaluative process, we must give due attention to these concerns. The modules have not been used in public schools and we have stopped the pilot testing in two schools," Hidalgo said.

She said in the statement that DepEd will hold a dialogue with concerned groups to help ensure that only solid family values are promoted in classrooms.

The DepEd is set to hold talks with the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) in the next couple of weeks to discuss this matter.

Earlier this month, the CBCP Episcopal Commission on Family and Life and Human Life International expressed their disapproval of the use of these lesson guides, given to Parañaque High School and Pateros National High School, which served as the pilot schools for the implementation of the program. — With Sandy Araneta, Sheila Crisostomo