Experts 'Guideline' For Sex Education: Minister

New Delhi, Aug 22 (UNI) Government experts plan to produce ''a guideline'' for implementing sex education programme that has run into trouble in several States, Parliament was told today.

A National Adolescence Education Programme Toolkit Review Committee has been set up by the National AIDS Control Organisation, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Panabaka Lakshmi said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.

NACO itself is one of the authors of the controversial Programme which has been under fire over content critics say may do more harm than good. Several States have refused to go ahead with it.

The Committee to review Programme content comprises academicians, educationists, child psychologists and psychiatrists, communication experts and non-governmental organisations, she said.

It also has representation from the National Council of Educational Research Training and the Central Board of Secondary Education and held its first meeting two weeks ago, she said.

The participants ''decided to prepare a guideline on content and pedagogical aspects of the AEP for guidance to State Governments and implementing agencies.'' She said the guideline will be based on a review of the Adolescence Education Programme materials developed by: -- NACO, United Nations Children's Fund, the Human Resource Development Ministry and NCERT; -- NCERT; -- CBSE in collaboration with Vidyasagar Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (VIMHANS); and -- YUVA module developed by Delhi State Council of Educational Research and Training.

She said the government has written to the Chief Ministers of States that have ''discontinued'' the Programme suggesting formation of committees of teachers and parents to review the modules and suggest changes, if needed.

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.

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