Should sexual education be taught in secondary schools?

Sexual education is a high quality teaching and learning about a broad variety of topics related to sex and sexuality; exploring values and beliefs about the skills that are needed to navigate relationship and manage one’s own sexual health. It should be mandatory, medically accurate and taught throughout student’s school years just like Mathematics and English language.

Sexual education is vital to the secondary school curriculum, not only does this lead to a better understanding of human development and human sexuality but awareness and sex education also reduce the rate of teen unwanted pregnancy, contracting STD, HIV OR AIDS. Studies have shown that comprehensive sexual education increases the age of when teenagers first have sex.

They told me that they wanted me to have children for them, so that the children can be brought up to become jihadists like them —Phoebe Musa

Learning about contraception and how to use contraception correctly ultimately leads to lower rates of STDs. Also, comprehensive sex education also teaches students about consensual sex and will hopefully lead to healthier sexual relationships and lower rates of sexual assault in the future. Not only should sex education be taught in secondary schools; it should also be mandatory for all school systems.

Hundreds of studies have shown that sexual education can have a positive effect on a child’s’ sexual urge.

Parents should be straightforward with their kids about sex and also inform them the implications of early sex. In Nigeria today, sexual education is yet to be included in the curriculum of secondary schools, neither does the adolescent boy or girl has free access to the information he/she needs on sexuality. The consequence is that Nigerian students now find answers to sex-related questions on their own without guidance from parents and teachers.

Early sexual activity has negative impacts for young students; they could contract AIDs which leads to physical and emotional damage of the young students. Also, the economy would be affected. The school should be an important source of information on sexual education, not just the parents’ job, but also the responsibility of the teachers since they are to produce responsible and decent students.

Alegbeleye Iyanuoluwa,

Ibadan.

Nigerian Tribune