NPTA: Teach sex education from pre school

“I am again making an appeal to the Ministry of Education for us to restart the discussion,” Ramatali told Newsday yesterday.

I am not saying anything different than what I have said in the past.

We need the HFLE curriculum to be taught by health professionals. We need it to be taught from pre schools to secondary schools.

“We do not want sexuality education to be infused in social studies or biology. We want it to be taught as a stand alone subject,” she said.

Noting the recent discourse on STDs among children, Ramatali said teachers are not teaching anything about sexuality in the primary schools because it was not on the new curriculum.

She said she knows because she asks questions and gets answers.

“I think the Ministry of Education needs to clarify what is being taught and what is not being taught.

I am not about making anybody look good. This is about saving the nation’s children,” she said.

Last week, the Ministry of Health at a Joint Select Committee hearing revealed that over 300 children of school age had been infected with STDs between 2012 to 2015. The ministry also disclosed that it had no updated statistics on recent infections for children of school age.

Asked about the distribution of condoms to school children, Ramatali said the NPTA is not in support of distributing condoms to them.

“What we need to do is to give children choices.

That is, giving them the tools to make wise choices...teaching them about relationships and so on. All of that will come into the HFLE syllabus,” she said.

Asked whether the NPTA has had recent discussions with Ministry of Education officials on the issue, she said, “Not recently”.