Pros and Cons of Sex Education in Schools

Sex education in schools is being given increasing importance as it is known to inform students about issues related to sex and sexual health. It is considered important for societies that its individuals are well-informed about sex, sexual practices, child sexual abuse and sexually transmitted diseases.

A school plays an important role in implementing effective sex education to growing children. Various studies suggest that effective sex education in schools prevents adolescents experimenting with sex. These sex education programmes also encourage the teenagers to use protection while indulging in any kind of sexual act.

According to the WHO, sex education should be imparted on the children who are 12 years and above. It is estimated that 34 percent of the HIV infected persons are in the age group of 12 to 19. However, like all ideologies, sex education in schools too has its own pros and cons.

Pros of Sex Education in Schools

• Sex education in schools can help children understand the impact of sex in their lives. It dispels myths related to sex and broadens their horizon.
• It can also answer all the questions that they have regarding their changing body and hormonal surges.
• Children are often inquisitive about the other gender. Sex education in school can help them understand the differences and keep the desire to explore things for themselves in check.
• Child sexual abuse is a social malice that is afflicting thousands worldwide. Sex education in schools can play an active role in curbing the incidence of abuse as through this medium children can be made aware of the difference between good and bad touch.
• It is much better to teach children about sexual health in school rather letting them use other resources, such as pornographic material and the internet. This is important because avenues, such as the internet have a huge store of information that might be misleading.
• With problems, such as teenage pregnancies and transmission of STDs on the rise, it is only appropriate that sex education is made accessible in school so that the most number of children can be made aware.
• It transforms children into responsible adults. It is a known fact that teenagers today turn sexually active, therefore, sex education can help them understand the benefit of abstinence in the early years or it can at least teach them how to be responsible sexually active people.

Cons of Sex Education in Schools

• Mostly teachers who are given the task of teaching sex education to students are not experts and have vague ideas about sexual health themselves. This is even more harmful as incorrect information is extremely lethal as it can actually leave a wrong impression on the students. Children have an impressionable mind and incorrect information imparted at an early age can actually transform them into ignorant adults.
• Students may still be subject to embarrassment or excitable by subject matter. If not taught properly, sex education in school can become a matter of ridicule and students may not take any interest in it.
• The fact that in most schools sex education is treated like an extracurricular course and not a primary one. If the authorising body is not serious about it then they cannot expect that students and teachers will be interested in it.
• Sex education at school may be at odds with the religious ideologies. Unless these disparities are sorted out by someone, who is aware of the two ideologies, sex education at school can actually confuse the students more.

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