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THAILAND: Straight-talking Sex Educators Reach Youngsters
By Chayanit Poonyarat
BANGKOK, Nov 7 (IPS) - In a high school classroom here in the Thai capital,
Nakorn Saniyothin takes out a condom packet, tears off the wrapper and uses
a rubber model of a penis to show her male students how to use the protector.
Sometimes, she also shows her class how female condoms and home
pregnancy kits are used.
Nakorn has been using non-conventional ways in her 23 years of teaching
sex education, using frank, informal language and slang to get through to
the more than 800 students she teaches at the all-male Suan Kularb school.
Her students also drop by Nakorn's office during breaks, to look at the
books she has or to have a chat with her.
For her, that the old-fashioned approach of using bland, clinical and
scientific language does not work in reaching out to youngsters in a
country where talk of sex is often taboo.
''We have to make children feel that sex is a common matter, like when
we talk about our hunger for food, so that they feel comfortable in seeking
counselling on sex-related issues,'' says Nakorn Saniyothin, who teaches
11th grade students, most of them around 17 years old.
The tactic she recommends is to ''speak the same language as students do
and to keep an open mind''. There is no right or wrong answer when talking
about sex, and every question needs to be answered, no matter how private,
she insists.
Key to her approach in handling her class is the realisation that Thai
youngsters are trying out sex at earlier ages these days, and need correct
information about reproductive health. Thus, Nakorn teaches students how to
protect themselves from HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases
(STDs).
But when she first introduced her up-front style to the school, teachers
and parents fretted that that the lessons would encourage premature sexual
experimentation among students.
''Children do not need to be taught about sex. They would rather be
taught about its ethical and moral aspects,'' says an on-line comment
posted on a news website here.
But Nakorn believes that a lack of understanding about sexual issues is
more risky, and more likely to lead young people to have unwanted
pregnancies, abortions and STDs.
Indeed, ''I'm not allowed to talk about sex at home because my parents
see it as 'dirty talk','' says 18-year-old Anusorn Sa-ad-iam, echoing what
many of her generation feel.
It has been two years since the education department introduced changes
that required schools nationwide to offer a more open, well-rounded
programme of sexual education. However, the ministry stopped short of
offering course guidelines and left these programming decisions up to
individual schools.
As a result, today, ''sex education in most schools still treats the
subject very scientifically, only making the students want to know more
about sex,'' explains Usasinee
Rewthong, an officer with the U.S.-based non-profit group, Programme for
Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH).
Usasinee also says education reforms have failed to turn around
ignorance about condom use among teens.
A survey in 2000 conducted by 'Thai Rath', Thailand's biggest selling
newspaper, found that on average, Thai youngsters are having sex between
the ages of 14 to 18, with some having their first sexual experience at 13.
The 1999 Durex Global Sex Survey, sponsored by condom manufacturer
Durex, found that among the 16 to 22 year-old Thais polled, 88 percent said
they were worried about contracting HIV/AIDS but only 23 percent used condoms.
Ignorance and sex can be a troubling and sometimes deadly mix for young
people, who are most at risk today.
Statistics from the ministry of public health show that that last year,
HIV/AIDS was the second leading cause of death among Thais aged 15 to 24.
Health ministry figures also reveal that 300 to 350 babies are abandoned
due to unwanted pregnancies each year.
Non-government organisations (NGOs) have been trying to produce and
distribute
their own guidebooks to address what they see missing in the school
syllabus on sex education, but their efforts have met with opposition.
Early this year, a row erupted when the non-government Siam Care
Organisation published its 'Handbook for Teenagers' for children aged 12
years and over, but the education ministry withheld its distribution
because of 'inappropriate' language on issues like safe sex, birth control,
menstruation and masturbation.
PATH also has projects that target not only students but high
school-based sex educators. One project, which encourages students to talk
openly about sexual issues, is showing that unwanted pregnancies among
participating students have dropped, said Usasinee.
''It is like being full after eating rice. Once you find out all about
it, you don't need to go and try it out or find out about it from somewhere
else,'' a PATH student says. ''In fact, it (sex education) makes you think
that it should not be easy to decide to have sex because there are plenty
of hassles that can result.''
In 1993, a World Health Organisation (WHO) survey of 35 sex education
projects showed that sex education in schools did not encourage young
people to have sex at an earlier age or more frequently.
Rather, the survey showed that early sex education delays the start of
sexual activity, reduces sexual activity among young people and encourages
those already sexually active to have safer sex.
''I have never told my students not to have sex. Sex education is
actually not a prohibition of sexual relationship. It is to equip our
children with well-rounded knowledge about sex, to give them more
alternatives,'' points out Nakorn.
In short, some youngsters say, they need correct information delivered
effectively. ''The more it (sex) is concealed, the more we (teenagers) want
to know,'' says Anusorn. (END/2002)
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