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28 March 2024

Official for sex education in Sri Lankan schools

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By Correspondent

The National Child Protection Authority (NCPA) has recommended that children should be taught about sex education in schools in the light of that Sri Lanka being ranked number one in Google Searches for the term ‘sex’, Ceylon Today reported.

“Sex education is a subject that must be administered properly to children. I just carried out a Google search and found out that Sri Lanka has been ranked number one using the search term ‘sex’ and this is because sex education is severely lacking in our schools’, Chairperson of NCPA Anoma Dissanayake pointed out.

The NCPA head said that it was imperative to educate Sri Lankan children on sexual issues in responsible manner.

"Children should be made to realise that sex is a natural thing and not something exotic or shameful," she said.

Noting that in Sri Lanka it is treated as a somewhat taboo subject unlike in Western countries where matters related to sex are taught from early age, she said: "We have to be very open and practical when dealing with this matter, otherwise children will resort to Google search to find out of sex for themselves."

Dissanayake reiterated that they must be taught that there is a time and a place and a dignified manner in which sex is dealt with, adding that sex is something that can be experienced at any age but the education must be given early.

"If they teach the subject, teachers must be properly trained,” she added.

In a related report Sri Lanka has compiled a legal and policy document on sexual and re-productive health for youth and adolescents in accordance with its global obligation to protect the youth from sexual diseases through education.

Health Ministry spokesman Dharma Wanninayaka told the Daily Mirror that a Health Education Bureau study had revealed that the education in reproductive health and sexuality among youth in Sri Lanka was extremely poor in comparison with other countries.

“The poor knowledge on these vital subjects at the right time can pose social, familial, psychological and sexual problems at the later stage,” he said adding the right to information on sexuality and re-productive health was a human right of the youth.

It has been ratified by the United Nations and the World Health Organisation (WHO). Almost all developed countries have adopted this document and taken steps to ensure it was implemented.

Wanninayaka said the document could act as a guide to policy makers if the government intended to include sex education in the school curricular which has become a matter of public debate right now.

The release of the policy document on sexuality and re-productive health was held in Colombo at a work shop attended by medical experts and psychologists from Sri Lanka, Australia, Myanmar, Bhutan and Indonesia.