The Catholic Church says yes — when it comes to sex education.
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) expressed alarm yesterday over the sex education program of the Department of Education (DepEd) that will be taught to high school students starting this year.
The CBCP Episcopal Commission on Family and Life (ECFL) said it is "deeply disturbed" by the contents of a module on population education to be used by the government to promote awareness among students on reproductive health.
Dr. Angelita Aguirre, core group member of ECFL and Human Life International, said she has personally written DepEd officer-in-charge Fe Hidalgo about the contents of the module, especially its active promotion of "safe sex education," which it said contained factual lapses.
In her letter, Aguirre argued that the lesson guide of DepEd is "devoid of full disclosure and truth telling," saying it did not include the fact that the condom does not guarantee safety from pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases, and that its failure rate varies from four to 25 percent with an average of 16 percent.
The lesson module "claims to foster values, restraint and responsibility yet it implies that sexual activity outside of marriage may be acceptable for as long as it does not result in ‘unwanted pregnancy’ and sexually transmitted diseases by ‘protected sex,’" said Aguirre, who also chairs the committee on bioethics of the Makati Medical Center-Department of Medicine.
The ECFL officer also virtually attacked the credibility of the module, saying the sources of the data presented in the lesson guide "do not come from the birth control industry."
Despite strong opposition from the Church, the DepEd will still pursue its plan to introduce sex education to high school students this school year.
The module, entitled "Adolescent Reproductive Health," covers lessons like the use of condoms and other contraceptive devices and will be integrated into the subjects of Health, English, Science, Filipino language, Technology and Livelihood Education and Social Studies.
"Information and services should be made available to adolescents to help them understand their sexuality and protect them from unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections and subsequent risk of infertility," Hidalgo stressed in the module’s foreword.
Saying that reproductive health is a "state of complete physical, mental and social well-being," Hidalgo claimed adolescents have been largely ignored to date by reproductive health service providers.
"Reproductive health needs of this group should be based on information that helps them attain a level of maturity required to make responsible decisions," she said.
Hidalgo said the lessons "were carefully crafted so they will naturally blend with the lesson competencies of the mother area."
While the guides are just prototypes, she said the recommended activities are only suggestive, not prescriptive: "The teacher is free to inject activities that she/he thinks is appropriate to the age, interest and capability of the students," Hidalgo said.
UNFPA representative Dr. Zahidul Huque, for his part, said that sex education is a helpful start to solve reproductive health concerns of adolescents who are increasingly exposed to risky behavior, like early sexual activity.
Huque urged the DepEd to adopt the program to be utilized from the national down to district levels.
But Aguirre maintained the position that sex education should be handled by parents, not by public schools.
"We know there is a time for everything because our teachers taught us character and values education," she added. "Human sexuality meant our total personhood and is not just an act."