The head of the House Committee on Women and Gender Equality on Wednesday underscored the need to integrate comprehensive sexuality education in the academic curriculum to educate teenagers on healthy and responsible sexuality.
Maria Lourdes Acosta-Alba, chair of the House women’s panel, said there is an apparent lack of community-based education and information campaign, even in the formal education curriculum, regarding about sexuality.
“I think we really need to integrate that in our curriculum, a comprehensive sexuality education,” Acosta-Alba said in responding to questions about the rising teenage pregnancy cases in the Philippines.
Acosta-Alba said it is imperative that Filipino adolescents and teenagers are taught how to be sexually healthy and responsible.
“They have to have a sexuality na safe, responsible and healthy and to really drum it up on them, especially about risky behaviors when you engage in early sex and how this could have a detrimental effect on their future,” the lawmaker stressed.
Parents, she also said, must also be equipped to educate their children about sex. “We need to also equip not only our teachers, but our parents are more or less (used to conservative) culture... it’s taboo to discuss sex to our children,” she pointed out.
“That’s one thing that we have to hurdle, that kind of mindset na it is ‘no, no’ to even talk about sex at home. But with the reality on the ground, with all the alarming statistics, we really need to do something,” she said.