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The Challenges Of Sex Education For Chidren In The Bahamas
Related to country: Bahamas

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Early Sex Ed.......Says Minister:
By Sasha L. Lightbourne -
Nassau, Bahamas:



Sex education classes should begin as early as the third grade in this country, according to the Minister of State for Social Services.

Loretta Butler-Turner, who was a special guest at the "Say Something" town meeting on Thursday evening, said she has had the opportunity to have discussion, with the ministries of Health and Education.

"I should allow you the privilege of knowing that we are engaged in ongoing discussions," she said. "We actually have classes for sex education for parents through the health education system, through social services and through the public school system.

"I also had an opportunity just two weeks ago since we’ve been moved under labour to meet with the Bahamas Christian Council."

The state minister told those gathered at the Wyndham Resort that one of the biggest challenges that successive governments have had is the introduction of sex education at an earlier age.

"You’re absolutely correct when you talk about the engagement of young children and I can tell you that even younger than grade 7 and 8 are actually engaging and expressing different things that they’ve seen, learnt or been exposed to and I’ve spoken to this on numerous occasions," she said. "I said to the Christian Council the other day that we are all about the place talking about teen pregnancy but we are not getting to the core of the matter."

She said what is most important is prevention.

"When are we going to endorse the fact that our children are already exposed on so many levels? Why are we not teaching them from grade three, the state minister said.

"I’m telling you it has to be grade three. It’s not too young because you can do age appropriate teaching."

Mrs. Butler-Turner pointed out that during a tour she took in April throughout the Family Islands talking about child abuse, she met with many primary school students.

"We talked about the good touches and the bad touches and these kids are truly very aware of these things because either they’ve been exposed to it through pornographic material their parents are watching or they’re just watching it on the Internet.

"The reality is that we as a people need to stop pretending, like putting our heads in the sand like the proverbial ostrich, and get real, start addressing these issues, allowing us to go into the schools and truly telling the truth to our children about the ‘birds and the bees’."

She said the country will continue to reap cases of teen pregnancy.

"As young people, civic leaders, political leaders and church leaders we have got to advocate because many times the church is the one that would say, ‘oh you teaching the children about sex now’," the state minister said. "When I went to private school as you did, we were exposed to sex education from grade three and it was done in an age appropriate way."

Mrs. Butler-Turner said the government school system needs sex education classes as part of its curriculum.

"I have asked minister [Carl] Bethel about it already," she said. "We have teachers in the system today that are not comfortable teaching sex education and that is one of our biggest drawbacks.

"I’m not here to knock teachers but the reality is until we realize that these things are happening, things will remain the same."

Four percent of 1,900 sixth graders participating in an ongoing government-funded study have admitted to having sex, HIV/AIDS and health officials disclosed back in April.

"We’ve always had kids in the primary school engaging in sexual activity and based on our overall teen statistics we’ve had persons as young as nine in our case clinic. So, we know that these activities are going on," Lynette Deveaux said at the time, the project director of Focus on Youth – an initiative sponsored in conjunction with the HIV/AIDS Centre and the Ministry of Health.

She classified the percentage as a small one, as the study only assessed 15 local primary schools.

August 9, 2008

August 11, 2008 | 3:45 PM Comments  0 comments

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