Colegio de Dagupan

Arellano St. Dagupan City

Position Paper
in General Ethics
Implementation of Sex Education
in Elementary Level in the Philippines

Submitted by:
David Jessof I. Ballesteros

Submitted to:
Mr. Jesse Ordoñez
I. Introduction

Section 12 in House Bill No. 5043 or commonly known as the Reproductive Health and
Population Development Bill (RH Bill Act of 2008), states that Reproductive Health Education
or “Sex Education” shall be taught in an age-appropriate manner by adequately trained
teachers starting from Grade 5 up to Fourth Year High School.

Whereas, Sex Education is about studying the human sexual anatomy, sexual
reproduction, sexual intercourse, reproductive health, emotional relations, reproductive rights
and responsibilities, abstinence, contraception, and other aspects of human sexual behavior.

Because of overpopulation in the Philippines, it makes the country number 12 in the

world’s top 20 most overpopulated countries in 2007. The government’s one big problem is
controlling the growth rate in the country that the fertility rates of Filipino women are above
normal and cases of HIV/AIDS among women or men is increasing rapidly every year.

So three years ago, the DepEd and Commission on Health proposed a bill that would
educate people particularly elementary and high school students, everything about
Reproductive Health to attain the bill’s goal to the development of the country’s population.

The RH Bill is supposed to teach sex education starting in Grade 5 up to fourth year high
school, which the Commission on Health thinks that it is an appropriate age to start learning
about sex and reproduction. And there was a time that they should start teaching sex
education as a subject starting early as Kindergarten Level.

As a Christian country, debates started to fill in because religion believes that the family
or having a family is sacred and it is the will of God. And that sex education must be left to the
parents to teach their kids.
 I find the implementation of the RH Bill in elementary level (Grade 5 and 6) quite helpful
because in those age levels, puberty and adolescence happen, and they should have
knowledge on how to deal with those changes, the good and right way.

Sex is the most vital knowledge everyone should have (not in the dirty way). The earlier
kids are educated into it, the better. Although why in the subject Science and Health doesn’t
teach sex education just clear enough to make the students learn the things they just don’t
know and avoid the ideas that make them indulge the things about sex.

It may help students to learn more of the things dealing with sexuality, including
pregnancy, control sex urge, the protection from STD’s, etc. But alongside learning all about
sex, students may become more conscious and tend to try having sex and say what does it
feels like. Especially among high school students, where admiration and sex urge may
sometimes occur.
II. Counter Arguments

Sex Education in elementary levels cannot be relied completely because parents,

preferably mothers, really don’t want to let their kids learn about sex in school because
sometimes they don’t trust the teacher because the parents don’t know what the teacher
believes in, what values he has, and how he lives his life. Sex Education is something very
sensitive, especially that we believe certain truths about it as Catholics. And it should be a
subject left for parents to teach to their children as the parents have the right to confront and
guide their children.

Sex Education isn’t really the solution to control the overpopulation of the country. It’s
just not reasonable that learning about sex is the solution to stop a person to have sex, to have
a family, and to protect themselves from sicknesses. The government should pass a bill that
would offer a free education for the poor people to have a proper education, including about
sex and the benefits of having a proper family planning, rather than teaching young kids about
sexuality where well-educated parents can teach them personally and emotionally at home.

To educate children on reproductive health and sexuality is an imperative. In fact, in

these times when children are exposed every day to myriad of information on sex in the
television, internet and other mass media, it is past the time to ask if sex should be discussed in
formal education.

The DepEd was alarmed upon receiving the report that 65 percent of the sample
population used for the study complained of experiencing violence. Both male and female
students, with 35.63 percent in Grades 4 to 6 and 42.88 percent in high school, have suffered
from verbal sexual harassment. There also have been reports of incidence of inappropriate
touching among 11 percent of both male and female lower-grade-level students and 17 percent
of secondary students. Meanwhile, there were also reported cases of students being forced to
have sex under the threat of receiving a failing mark.
 We all know that Filipinos have the trait of “hiya”, whereas parents don’t talk about sex
with their children because they may feel awkward and uncomfortable to talk about it. By
doing this, parents don’t realize the adverse effects.

Effective sex education also provides young people with an opportunity to explore the
reasons why people have sex, and to think about how it involves emotions, respect for one self
and other people and their feelings, decisions and bodies. Young people should have the
chance to explore gender differences and how ethnicity and sexuality can influence people's
feelings and options.

Further, an appropriate sex education program will help children develop healthy and
scientific concepts about their bodies and sexuality, even at a young age. This is an important
foundation in protecting children from potential sexual abuse and exploitation. We have seen
children who allowed perpetrators to touch their private body parts under the guise of
“playing.”

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Population Fund
(UNFPA), American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association have all
published reports that support the effectiveness of sex education programs in the US and other
parts of the world.

 Experts have identified critical characteristics of highly effective sex education and
HIV/STI prevention education programs. Such programs:
 Offer age- and culturally appropriate sexual health information in a safe environment
for participants;
 Are developed in cooperation with members of the target community, especially young
people;
 Assist youth to clarify their individual, family, and community values;
 Assist youth to develop skills in communication, refusal, and negotiation;
  Provide medically accurate information about both abstinence and also contraception,
including condoms;
 Have clear goals for preventing HIV, other STIs, and/or teen pregnancy;
 Focus on specific health behaviors related to the goals, with clear messages about these
behaviors;
 Address psychosocial risk and protective factors with activities to change each targeted
risk and to promote each protective factor;
 Respect community values and respond to community needs;
 Rely on participatory teaching methods, implemented by trained educators and using
all the activities as designed.

Research has identified highly effective sex education and HIV prevention programs
that affect multiple behaviors and/or achieve positive health impacts. Behavioral outcomes
have included delaying the initiation of sex as well as reducing the frequency of sex, the
number of new partners, and the incidence of unprotected sex, and/or increasing the use of
condoms and contraception among sexually active participants.
III. Arguments

A. Filipino Traits, Customs, Culture and Christian beliefs affect approval of Sex
Education to be implemented in Elementary Level
a. Filipinos have many beliefs and traits with the belief as a Catholic being. Such
as the “pagpapahalaga sa pamilya”, which the Church directly says that having a family is
a sacred gift that God has given to a person. Filipinos highly value the presence of their
families more than anything. Regardless of the liberal influence they have gotten from
the west, the family remained the basic unit of their society.
Other trait is the “hiya”, on my case, there is such a silence when talking
about, or maybe we just don’t talk about it (sexuality, etc.). Because it’s just feel awkward
being such an innocent about those things and being so dull-minded to commit the
things that will destroy our lives in the future.

B. Grade 5 and 6 in elementary is already age-appropriate to teach Sex Education

a. It does not mean that Sex Education is just learning of what is sex. It also
introduces the role of being a partner. Role as a part of a society, that you have rules to
abide and has rights of others to respect. With these, it means that, we have to learn
controlling the size of our family. Being educated about safe sex, we prevent spreading
sicknesses and diseases that up to now are hard to, or even impossible to cure.

C. Not all parents are willing and capable to teach their kids about sexual matters
a. The majority of these people are the single-parents and are, let’s say, lower
class and not well-educated of right partnership that they were a victim of early and
unwanted pregnancy.
They may wanted to teach their kids for them to avoid being one as their
parents, but as the child grows older, and with lack of support (for the single-parent) the
child tends to disbelieve the truth that sex is a matter of life and is given by God to be
done in the right time and in the right way.
 D. Benefits of the RH Bill
a. Sex Education is just a Section in the RH Bill, not to mention the several
programs that develop the sexuality of a person towards another person. And Sex
Education must be adequately taught by a very well-trained teacher to handle the shock
of the Grad 5 and 6 students knowing the stuffs that they should know about their own
sexuality. And that he/she can handle the student’s curiosity that the right time will come
and what he teaches them is for the betterment of their selves and for the country also.

f. To fully implement the Reproductive Health Care Program with the following components:
(1) Reproductive health education including but not limited to counseling on the full range of
legal and medically-safe family planning methods including surgical methods;
(2) Maternal, pen-natal and post-natal education, care and services;
(3) Promotion of breastfeeding;
(4) Promotion of male involvement, participation and responsibility in reproductive health as
well as other reproductive health concerns of men;
(5) Prevention of abortion and management of post-abortion complications; and
(6) Provision of information and services addressing the reproductive health needs of the
poor, senior citizens, women in prostitution, differently-abled persons, and women and children in war
AND crisis situations.

E. Students can consult about what they learned from Sex Education to their
parents
a. Grade 5 and 6 is such an early age for children to learn about sex, and is yet
early to be able to consult their lessons of the day to their parents. In that way, families
have a chance to talk about it, include some religious talk so that they will know their
responsibilities better; can make a child’s mind go into the right way, into right living
without any guilt.
IV. Conclusions

1. Filipino Traits, Customs, Culture and Christian beliefs affect approval of Sex Education
to be implemented in Elementary Level
2. Grade 5 and 6 in elementary is already age-appropriate to teach Sex Education
3. Not all parents are willing and incapable to teach their kids about sexual matters
4. Benefits of the RH Bill
5. Students can consult about what they learned from Sex Education to their parents

Let us try to analyze the reasons that point towards sex education for the teens:
Adequate guidance would always help prevent teenage pregnancies. Sex education will help
teenagers appreciate the negative impact of teenage pregnancy on their education, and
consequently on their future, so that they would take necessary steps to avoid it.
Sex education to the teens is the responsibility of every parent and teacher. It is better
for them to get the right information from their peers rather than getting misinformation from
other sources like friends, magazines or websites
Enlightening a teenager is the best preventive policy to tackle the growing health
problems in this age group. They need to understand very early that “it is better to be safe than
sorry.”
V. References

http://www.medindia.net/patients/patientinfo/sexeducation.htm#ixzz1DkJrYSUv\
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Benefits_of_sex_education_to_elementary_and_high_school_students
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/5/1/focus/3810645&sec=focus
http://www.advocatesforyouth.org/publications/450?task=view
http://www.e-turo.org/?q=node/1592
http://jlp-law.com/blog/reproductive-health-bill-fact-sheet-and-explanatory-note/
http://jlp-law.com/blog/full-text-of-house-bill-no-5043-reproductive-health-and-population-
development-act-of-2008/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_education
http://www.philippine-portal.com/arts-and-culture/traditions-and-customs/values-traits-and-
gestures.html
http://www.etr.org/recapp/documents/programs/SexHIVedProgs.pdf
http://www.prolife.org.ph/news/index.php/2010/07/our-position-on-the-integration-of-sex-education-
in-our-public-schools/
http://dailycaller.com/2010/02/02/abstinence-program-successful-in-delaying-teen-sex/