Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Manila (Agenzia Fides) – In many areas of Philippines society to speak openly about human sexuality is still taboo and the government intends to make some changes introducing, in the new school year which has just started, a controversial programme of sex education. The government hopes in this way to reduce population growth, considered a cause of widespread poverty in a country with a population of about 92 million. The immediate reaction of the Catholic Church in the Philippines has been a call for the programme to be withdrawn. Government Education Department secretary, Mona Valisno, said she is willing to meet Church leaders to discuss the issue.
The government project intends to introduce a programme of reproductive health among adolescents in 80 middle schools and 79 high schools, and then extend the programmes to schools all over the country. “Our role is to educate young people on matters which concern them directly, to make them aware of the choices and decisions they are called to make”, we read in a statement by the Education secretary. Subjects will range from personal hygiene to reproductive health, premarital sex, early pregnancy, HIV-AIDS. The government said the proposed course, prepared by experts and psychologists, to guarantee adequate information, will not only on focus contraception, it will inform pupils of what is right and the risks they run. The government says it is ready to discuss the matter with Church authorities but whether the controversial programme will be applied, revised or cancelled remains to be seen.
The Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), which in the past stopped a proposed bill to provide public funds for information on and access to means of artificial birth control, is strongly against the new programme proposed by the government, on the grounds that sex education is a matter to be discussed privately in the family, rather than publicly in school. “This is not a subject for children” said Mgr Pedro Quitorio CBCP media delegate. “This education can be achieved better by parents. Human sexuality should be understood as a gift from God, not only as something physical”.
A recent report issued by the United Nations said that the average age of 47% of the population in the Philippines is 19 years and that young people need education if they are to become responsible adults capable of making the right decisions for themselves and their families. Again according to the United Nations, 33% of the people living in the country live on less than a dollar a day, some 5.2 million school aged children are not registered at any school, every day 11 mothers die of pregnancy connected causes, the number of HIV+ young people in the Philippines has multiplied by 5 in the past two years. (AP) (19/6/2010 Agenzia Fides)
