NEDA chief Pernia: Sex ed may be taught in schools this year

Sex education will be included in the country's school curriculum this year to slow down population growth, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia said on Thursday.

Because of an increasing fertility rate, Pernia said the Philippines' would have to wait until 2050 before it could achieve the demographic "sweet spot" of having its labor force outnumbering its dependent population.

"We are going full speed ahead in implementing sexuality education," Pernia said at a briefing in Pasig City.

According to Pernia, the implementation of sexuality education is one of the ways of reducing involuntary teenage pregnancies.

"If they are properly educated about the care of their bodies (they will be able) to take care of themselves from unwanted pregnancies," Pernia said.

"That can be learned from the schools starting grade five through high school," he added.

Asked when sexuality education will take effect, Pernia said that this may be implemented soon as the instructional materials are already available.

"We can do that right away. The materials are already there, the manuals are good to go," Pernia said.

"The Education Secretary (Leonor Briones) is within our page in terms of that provision of the RH (reproductive health) law is concerned. Yes, this year," he added.

Some schools have already added sexuality education to their curriculum, Pernia said.

"It has been started in some schools where principals are not unreasonably scrupulous in teaching sexuality education," Pernia said.

Duterte ‘a family planning advocate’

Pernia admitted that several groups had already expressed their opposition to sex education in the schools.

"There is a caveat there. Seventeen groups said schools should have the consent of the parent," he said.

Pernia said that there will be full support from President Rodrigo Duterte, who he said was "a family planning advocate."

"The time has come that we have a President who is not afraid of anyone, not even with the Catholic hierarchy. I don't think that is a problem. He will face up to them," Pernia said.

Education delays sex —UNFPA

For his part, United Nations Food Program (UNFPA) Country Representative Klaus Beck cited gains of having sexuality education in the Philippine education system.

"Sexuality education is a critical choice to make sure young girls and boys make responsible choices based on accurate information," Beck said.

"The more information they have, the more likely they are to have sex later.... It helps delay sex and when they choose to do sex they can do it much more responsibly," he said. —NB, GMA news