Sex Education on the BEC?

       One of the issues we are facing today in the country is early pregnancy through the involvement of the youth in sexual activities. Sad to say, these ladies have no idea that they are not just “blowing their balloons” but they cal also acquire human immunodeficiency virus, widely known as HIV, or Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). In America, approximately 65 percent of all sexually transmitted infections contracted by Americans will occur in people under the age of 24. One in four new HIV infections occurs in people younger than 22. If Philippines would have the same case as this, then such precautions must be done. That is why there have been advocates who proposed to integrate sex education in the Basic Education Curriculum (BEC) of the Philippines starting from first year high school.

         Sex education is a program designed to teach students the process an individual takes throughout life, including information about forming attitudes, beliefs and values about identity, relationships, and intimacy (SIECUS, 1991). Most goals of sex education classes are the promotion of adult sexual health. The goals of sex education are to provide accurate information about human sexuality, to provide an opportunity for young people to develop and understand their values, attitudes, and beliefs about sexuality, to help young people develop interpersonal skills and to help young people apply responsibility of sexual relationships.

         If advocates will pursue sex education, they must identify the right age of students to be taught. First year high school students are not yet capable of understanding these things. It is inappropriate, then, to teach sex education among first year students since their minds are still vulnerable. If they would hear about condoms and pregnancy prevention, they will become more curious about it. In fact one online user said: “there is an average of 30+ pregnant girls at any period of time at the school, and parents are turning a blind eye to it. They feel that if the kids are taught about sex, it will happen. Looks like it's happening anyway.”

        "It promotes promiscuity among children... it does not promote the proper values that we want our children to receive in schools and we believe sex education should strictly remain a family affair", Eric Manalang, head of the conservative political party Ang Kapatiran (The Brotherhood) said.

        In this case, we are stirring the young minds of the students and will most likely urge them to do sexual activities. Instead of giving them prevention, we influence them to do it.

         Though many people fear that sex education can only encourage curiosity among students which may lead to reality of doing sexual intercourse. However, without having a course in sex education teens will not fully be aware about human sexuality, which is something all teenagers should be knowledgeable about. It is essential that students know how to properly establish self-esteem and goals for the future, which is also involved in a sexual education course. If students do not have any self-esteem they consider themselves to be subordinate. It will not promote promiscuity among children since teaching modules were designed by professionals, including psychologists, who made sure the discussions would be educational.

        "Sex education will be integrated in other subjects such as science and they are designed to be scientific and informative. They are not designed to titillate prurient interests," Education Secretary Mona Valisno said.

Parents won't also worry for in a study of 35 sex education programs around the world, the World Health Organization found there is no evidence that comprehensive programs encourage sexual activity. Even comprehensive programs are safe. Some parents feel as though they cannot approach their children about this topic, never mind teach them the details about sexual relationships, so they leave the task up to the schools and there is nothing wrong with that. Sex education should be taught in high schools, as well as in the earlier years of education. Sex education can teach people of all ages the consequences and responsibilities of engaging in sexual activities.

         Indeed, the younger a person is, the less knowledge about the real world he has. But are we going to worsen this situation and deprive this important topic? Awareness makes someone intelligent. To bring awareness, it should not only be the work of individual school districts but a one voice of the our state not just to solve our problem on early pregnancies but to protect the people by instilling health consciousness. Proponents of sex education in the Philippines say HIV is on the rise among young Filipinos and that many of the nation’s poor do not have access to proper sex education.This is about teaching the children, the future generation, how to make responsible decisions in life, for the betterment of the entire nation.

       Young people are going to learn about sex and our question has to be where do we want them to learn? From the media? From their friends? Or do we want them to learn from an educated, responsible adult?

-CCB

Not just One, but Everybody's Responsibility!

         The night of December 16, 2011 was the moment of claiming lives, otherwise an escape from the torrent of death. Everybody wasn't prepared by the coming of typhoon Sendong and it resulted death for many; injuries for some; and missing lives of others. Truly, the people of Cagayan de Oro City were innocent of the coming typhoon.

         In moments like this, where is the City Mayor at the time Sendong strikes at midnight? or even before the day it was about to visit the city? He was somewhere else that all of us didn't know. The City Mayor, himself, did not even know about the coming typhoon, he said in an interview. People were questioning him. More of that when there were no preparations seen. Even the warning signal was not emphasized to many and how we can be prepared for the worst situation.

         It is the government's duty to protect the people from such calamities as stated in Article II, section 15: "The State shall protect and promote the right to health of the people and instill health consciousness among them." But the city government overlooked on establishing precautionary measures for this. They focus on developing other areas which are not the primary needs of the people-like tourism and road construction. With all these, is it right to blame our city government?

         Howbeit a lot of people are questioning Mayor Dongkoy Emano, it seems that we are not also doing our part in protecting ourselves. Before we can build a house, we know the lot. If it is in lowland, we need to evacuate when a typhoon comes. We are also given the prerogative to be vigilant of typhoon warnings and make ourselves informed of what's happening in the society. If we point  Mayor Emano, can't we see how many fingers are pointing to ourselves? We are blaming a person just because we see that he is in the position. But are we in the position to put the blame him? It is one's nature to react on such stimulus, but between stimulus and response is the use of knowledge (S-K-R). We see that he is the leader and he has to do all things. Remember that he is not in control of the situation or what might be willed. It is not right to blame a person while we also fail to recognize our mistakes. Did we make ourselves informed of the coming typhoon? Did we consider the place we are living at if in case of such calamities? How did we prepare for such unexpected occurrences like this? Or are we just busy that time on things that we do not need?
        Weigh things first before putting judgments on people because we never know how much we can destroy lives through words or how much we unconsciously become like them. It is everybody's responsibility to take care of ourselves as much as the government would protect the people. If we fail to do our roles, then we have to suffer the consequences it may bring. We are responsible and accountable of each other because we are one nation. What we can do now, rather than pin-point the blame, is to extend the most help to the victims to recover from the acrid incident.

-CCB