Government Orders Critical Review Of Sex Education

New Delhi, Aug 21 (UNI) Under fire over sex education apt to do more harm than good, authorities have ordered a critical review of the Adolescence Education Programme material, Parliament was told today.

The programme was scheduled to have been introduced in schools last month but several States refused to go ahead with it.

''There have been some objections to the contents in the Toolkit, which is meant for the teachers,'' Minister of State for Human Resource Development D Purandareswari told the Lok Sabha.

The government acknowledgement came in a written reply to a question asked by Bharatiya Janata Party member Pushpdan Shambhudan Gadhavi from Gujarat.

Purandareswari said the Ministry launched Adolescence Education Programme in collaboration with National AIDS Control Organisation to be implemented by States and Union Territories in secondary and higher secondary schools.

She said it was focused on three major adolescence concerns: Process of Growing up during adolescence, Prevention of HIV/AIDS and Prevention of Substance (Drug) Abuse.

The HIV is Human Immunodeficiency Virus is a retrovirus that can lead to Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome or AIDS-- in which the human immune system begins to fail.

She said the National Council of Educational Research and Training reported that there have been some objections to the contents in the Toolkit, which is meant for the teachers.

The NACO under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has set up a Committee to ''critically review'' the material pertaining to Adolescence Education Programme, she said.

She said the Centre has also advised all States and Union Territories to review the material to align it in the context of local environment and the socio-cultural ethos.

At a seminar in New Delhi on the eve of schools reopening in the Capital last month, the Programme came under fire as likely to make school kids sexually active, undermining family and other traditional values.

Former Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi called it ''a direct attack on our cultural institutions'' and parents were exhorted to make it clear to schools that their kids won't attend if such education were imparted.

UNI