Tripura to introduce adolescent issues in school syllabus

Agartala, Oct 19 (UNI) After the introduction of Environment Education in school syllabus, the Tripura government has taken initiative to include adolescent health issues in the curriculum following recommendations of the Education Commission.

Official sources here said the state government made environmental studies compulsory up to class XII in 2005 under the Tripura Board of Secondary Education following the verdict of the Supreme Court.

As per the government decision, State Council of Education Research and Training (SCERT) had made arrangement to introduce sex education in 200 schools in the state in 2005 but due to ''administrative inconvenience'' it was yet to be done.

The SCERT had finalised its curriculum and was planning a trial run to implement it as per guidelines of the National Population Education Project from class VIII. However, the Supreme Court's judgement regarding environmental education delayed its implementation, the SCERT officials said.

However, Tripura Board of Secondary Education had initiated a move to include health and sex education along with environmental studies from next year that comprises interactive sessions, counselling and audio-visual demonstrations, besides print material, the sources stated.

''Adolescent education becomes a 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,'' state Education Minister Tapan Chakraborty said.

The curriculum was developed with a view to providing adolescent authentic knowledge which will help them adopt rational attitudes and responsible behaviour. It will also help students cope with the biological, psychological, socio-cultural dimensions of adolescence.

Since sex education is a sensitive subject which educators as well as parents tend to avoid, the curriculum takes particular care to spread awareness among adolescents about sexual aspects, apart from responsible behaviour towards sex and drugs, Mr Chakraborty added.

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