Malaysian teachers say 'No' to Sex Ed

The recent debate over the introduction of sex ed to schools nationwide has caused a stir amongst angst teachers as well as parents all around and significantly been hyped up by the media. While some strongly agree that sex ed is imperative to all students, aged 12-17, and argue to see through it that sex ed to be made mandatory to secondary school students, others are against it. 


News extracted from here
Malaysian teachers are saying ''no'' to sex. They are not ready to impart sex education in schools.



They lack professional training in teaching the subject, National Union of Teaching Profession (NUTP) secretary-general Lok Yim Pheng said today.


She said, while the union fully supported the government’s move to provide sex education in schools, “sadly, the teachers lack formal training in the complexity and sensitivity of the subject and are not confident to teach it”.


Lok told Bernama the teachers were afraid they might be sued by the parents “if they were to make mistakes in imparting the knowledge of sex to the pupils.”


Malaysia is a multi-racial, religious and cultural nation with each ethnic group having its own notion on the subject, which made the teaching more challenging, she noted.


The NUTP is the country’s biggest teachers union representing 160,000 teachers, which is approximately half the teaching profession.

Lok said the union wanted the education ministry to first discuss with the stakeholders on the pros and cons of the move before making a firm decision.


Currently, the subject was taught in “bits and pieces” from the primary level to secondary level, in the absence of a proper structured course.


Of late, sex education has become a very important issue in the country, with an increasing number of unwed mothers, many of them students.


Meanwhile, a Bernama survey among students, parents and teachers showed that all groups were in favour of sex education but were unsure of the form and content of the course.


Teenage student Jayaraman said he was all for it, but was unsure what and how the teachers were going to teach because "we have more girls than boys in our class and most of our teachers are female.”


Abdul Raof Bidin, 38, who has two school-going children, felt that it was necessary to teach the subject.


"It should be handled with care as it could easily be misconstrued and do more harm than good, if wrongly imparted," he said.


Another parent, M. Arumugam, 44, believed it was better for medical professionals like doctors and nurses to impart the subject to students.


“Maybe, the education ministry should consult the health ministry and come up with some kind of arrangement for teachers to be provided with on-the-job training," he reasoned.

Betty Lee, who has 24 years teaching experience, felt that the subject was best handled by “teachers who themselves are mothers and know how to handle such a complex subject.
“With due respect, not all teachers can teach the subject, and the ministry should be very careful in selecting the right candidate for the job,” added the 50-year-old. -- BERNAMA

In my humble opinion, the government should work something out and see through it that by the end of next year or so, hopefully?, sex ed is to be made mandatory to all secondary students nationwide. While the teachers protest that insufficient resources are allocated to that matter, perhaps the government should look into the matter? Perhaps setting up trainings or courses for teachers to attend to in order to compensate for the lack of formality, at least.

Also, parents should be more open minded in spilling the beans on the birds and the bees while their children are still young. It cannot be stressed anymore on how important is sex ed is these days when globalization have taken us by storm and that we are now revolving together with it, no longer around it.

Home is every child's first school. Every child gets their first education at home, where we learn to talk, crawl and walk. So why not learn all about sex at home? Or at least some form of introduction before our hormones and curiosity takes over? To me, its all about early exposure and with an early exposure, we can learn to prevent unwanted tragedies.

Anyway, good job with the government for setting up the first hatchling in the country! The open-mindedness of the government shows that we, as Malaysians should be more proactive in handling these sensitive issues and NOT choose to ignore them. Thank you very much.