Tripura to introduce sex education in schools

Agartala, Jun 24: Tripura government has accepted the proposal of inclusion of sex education in the school syllabus from the next academic session.

Talking to mediapersons here today state Education Minister Keshab Majumder informed that the Union Human Resource Ministry had convened a meeting in New Delhi last month to introduce sex education from class six standards.

''Though a few BJP-run states opposed the move, we accepted the proposal with a view to introduce it into the curriculum from class eight onwards,'' Mr Majumder said.

After the introduction of Environment Education in school syllabus in 2004, Tripura government had taken initiative to introduce health and sex education in the curriculum as per the recommendation of the education commission but it was not done due to opposition from different corners in the state.

The state government made environmental studies compulsory up to class XII standard this year under Tripura Board of Secondary Education, following the verdict of Supreme Court.

As per the government decision, State Council of Education Research and Training(SCERT) had made arrangements to introduce sex education in 200 schools in the state in 2005 and the attempt foiled due to administrative inconvenience, minister said.

SCERT finalised its curriculum and was planning a dry-run to implement it as per guidelines of the National Population Education Project from class VIII upwards but the Supreme Court's judgment regarding environmental education virtually set aside the plan, says SCERT officials.

However, considering the importance, Tripura Board of Secondary Education(TBSE) has initiated move to include health and sex education in environmental studies from next year that comprises interactive sessions, counselling and audio-visual demonstrations besides print material.

It believes ''adolescence education'' becomes an urgent necessity because psychological and physical behaviour at pre-adult stage is intimately connected to incidence and spread of deadly diseases like HIV/AIDS especially in northeastern states, TBSE President Prof Subrata Sengupta told UNI.

''The curriculum has been developed with a view to provide adolescents authentic knowledge which will help them adopt rational attitudes and responsible behaviour. Moreover, it will help students cope with the biological, psychological, socio-cultural dimensions of adolescence,'' he added.

''Since sex education is a sensitive subject, which educators as much as parents tend to wish away, the curriculum takes particular care to emphasise the need for sexual respect, apart from responsible behaviour towards sex and drugs,'' Prof Sengupta attributed.

UNI