Sex Education In Kyrgyzstan: Types And Importance

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This paper discusses what is sex education, its types and the importance of sex education in Kyrgyzstan. It examines the fundamentals of sexuality education of society and sexuality education practice in Kyrgyz society.

Introduction

Every child has thought about how children appear from mothers’ belly, and often, when a child asks an adult such question, the adult feels uncomfortable, ashamed, and even sometimes angry and can shame the child for interest. Often, when children are already studying at school, in biology or anatomy classes, teachers often skip the topic of the structure of the human reproductive system, human development and reproduction, and often give these sections for self-study. The issue of the sex taboo has been increasing. Because of this, there are significant problems that now exist in Central Asian society such as increasing level of the incidence of HIV / AIDS every year, increasing level of teenage pregnancies, abortions, problems of tolerance to discriminated groups, LGBT communities. All this show that the problem is not only in the educational or family spheres. This is a problem of the state level, about the health and well-being of the population. I think that this topic is extremely important, and still relevant since it applies to all of us. This paper will find out what is sexual education, types of sexual education and why it is important to have sexual education in Kyrgyzstan.

Literature Review

Gerald S. Oettinger ‘The Effects of Sex Education on Teen Sexual Activity and Teen Pregnancy’ (1999). This article examines the relationship between enroll- ment in sex education and subsequent sexual behavior for U.S. teenagers during the 1970s. The estimates indicate that enrollment in sex education was associated with earlier sexual activity for fe- males in this cohort . In contrast, sex education had much less impact on male transitions into sexual activity. Within-family analyses using sibling data reveal qualita- tively similar patterns. Overall, the evidence suggests that sex education in the 1970s had some causal impact on teen sexual behav- ior, probably in significant part by providing information that enabled teens to alter the risks of sexual activity.

Odekunmi Funke Beatrice ‘The Effect of Sex Education on Teenage Pregnancy among Secondary School Students in Ibadan Metropolis’ (2013). Unplanned pregnancies among Nigerian teenagers and young women have risen despite improvements in educational levels. Though, over the same period the use of modern contraceptive methods among sexually active adolescent women in Nigeria had changed, yet this has not slowed down the rate of teenage pregnancy among the adolescents in Nigeria. The study utilized the survey research method using a self report questionnaire to gather the data. The revalidated Adolescent Sex Education, the authors reconmmend some beginning steps for teacher-preparation institutions.

GAFAR T. IJAIYA, USMAN A. RAHEEM, ABDUL WAHEED O. OLATINWO, MUNIR IJAIYA and RAJI A. BELLO ‘HIV/AIDS AND WELL-BEING IN SOUTH CENTRAL AND SOUTH-EAST ASIA’ (2010) this paper examines the impact of HIV/AIDS on the well-being of the people in these sub-regions. Holding the incidence of tuberculosis constant, the result indicates that the prevalence of HIV/AIDS has little or no significant impact on well-being. A situation that can be linked to efforts put in place by the governments of the countries in the sub-regions in curtailing the menace of HIV/AIDS. This result notwithstanding, the paper still suggests measures that can be used to curtail the spread and the treatment of the disease in the sub-regions.

International technical guidance on sexuality education is an evidence-informed approach, published by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 2018. This paper examines the nature of sex education, he International technical guidance on sexuality education (the Guidance) was developed to assist education, health and other relevant authorities in the development and implementation of school-based and out-of-school comprehensive sexuality education programs and materials.

Sexuality education – what is it? (2016) European Expert Group on Sexuality Education, this group’s work provides an overview of key issues in sexuality education. It focuses primarily on sexuality education in Europe and Central Asia. In this article I used for understanding of benefits of sxualeducatio

What is sex education? And What are the types of it? Sexuality education aims to develop and strengthen the ability of children and young people to make conscious, satisfying, healthy and respectful choices regarding relationships, sexuality and emotional and physical health. Sexuality education does not encourage children and young people to have sex (European Expert Group on Sexuality Education, 2016, p. 427). Authors want to say that education can be not only in one sphere as reproductive system but also covers other spheres. Thus, sexuality education is divided into two common types. Abstinence-only sex education is a way that teaches children to wait until they get married or will be adults to get into sexual relationships. According to UNESCO, “Comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) is a curriculum-based process of teaching and learning about the cognitive, emotional, physical and social aspects of sexuality. It aims to equip children and young people with knowledge, skills, attitudes and values that will empower them to: realize their health, well-being and dignity; develop respectful social and sexual relationships; consider how their choices affect their own well-being and that of others; and, understand and ensure the protection of their rights throughout their lives” (UNESCO, 2018, P. 16).

Why it is important to have sexual education? According to European Expert Group on Sexuality Education (2016) “Sexuality education delivered within a safe and enabling learning environment and along- side access to health services has a positive and life-long effect on the health and well-being of young people” (European Expert Group on Sexuality Education, 2016, p. 428). Authors of this book say that they have made a research on long-term sexual education in different countries of Europe and it led to reduction of teenage pregnancies, teenage abortions, and HIV/ AIDs infections among young. Adolescents become more conscious and come to sexual relationship later. Another reason why sexual education in Kyrgyzstan is important, that numbers of HIV/ AIDs, teenage abortion and pregnancy have been increasing. The battle has always been between sex education and abstinence-only. Some experts argue that abstinence education is the only way to prevent teenagers from having sex, while others insist that teenagers will have sex no matter what, and it is better for them to be equipped with solid educational information about sex. Such will enable them to limit HIV infections and prevent many unplanned teen pregnancies (Guttmacher Institute, 2008).

Sex education in Kyrgyzstan. “According to the Ministry of Health, 1408 young girls aged under 20 years old had abortions in the year 2015. In 2015, there were 297 registered cases of sexually trans- mitted infections among young people aged 15 – 19 years” (to Federal Centre for Health Education, 2018, p. 3). In Kyrgyzstan, as we know it is not customary to talk about such things as sex, and many teenage girls face problems such as being not able to tell to their parents about first menstruation, on how to correctly use Intime hygienic products. All this fear leads to search information about it in internet which is often not accurate for their age and can somehow harm their psychology. Adolescents not knowing much correct information go into sexual relationship with their partners and might get infected with different sexually transmitted infections.

Traditionally in Kyrgyz society sex education is not taught as it should be, called abstinence-only, which teaches children to wait until they are either married or adults to engage in sexual relationships. According to Federal Centre for Health Education (2018), sex education practices in Kyrgyzstan has been integrated in 2015, and was given as a subject ‘Healthy Lifestyle’ for students starting from 12 years and older. As practice showed this subject is not mandatory and taught at schools differently depending on the region, the preparedness of teachers and other administrative factors.

In Sexuality Education in the WHO European Region it is said that “The subject covers a variety of topics, e.g. hygiene, family planning, teenage pregnancy, early marriage and bride-kidnapping, violence, reproductive rights, sexual development and gender, spread over different grades” (Federal Centre for Health Education, 2018). In this article it says that the Ministry of Education of Kyrgyzstan and the Ministry of Health have approved methodological guidelines for teachers which were created and developed by United Nations Population Fund and the ‘Deutsche Gesellschaft fur international Zusammenarbeit’ (GIZ). However, no special trainings for teachers were organized. According to article,

Bibliography

  1. Lesia Nedoluzhko, Victor Agadjanian (2010) ‘Marriage, childbearing, and migration in Kyrgyzstan: Exploring interdependences’ https://www.demographic-research.org/volumes/vol22/7/22-7.pdf
  2. Odekunmi Funke Beatrice (2013) ‘The Effect of Sex Education on Teenage Pregnancy among Secondary School Students in Ibadan Metropolis’. http://www.iosrjournals.org/iosr-jhss/papers/Vol17-issue4/L01745964.pdf?id=8388
  3. Oettinger, G. (1999). The Effects of Sex Education on Teen Sexual Activity and Teen Pregnancy. Journal of Political Economy,107(3), 606-644. doi:10.1086/250073
  4. Malfetti, J., & Rubin, A. (1968). Sex Education: Who Is Teaching the Teachers? The Family Coordinator, 17(2), 110-117. doi:10.2307/583248
  5. IJAIYA, G., RAHEEM, U., OLATINWO, A., IJAIYA, M., & BELLO, R. (2010). HIV/AIDS AND WELL-BEING IN SOUTH CENTRAL AND SOUTH-EAST ASIA. Pakistan Economic and Social Review,48(1), 85-103. Retrieved from www.jstor.org/stable/41762415
  6. European Expert Group on Sexuality Education (2016) Sexuality education – what is it?, Sex Education, 16:4, 427-431, DOI: 10.1080/14681811.2015.1100599 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/14681811.2015.1100599?needAccess=true
  7. UNESCO (2018). International technical guidance on sexuality education https://www.unaids.org/sites/default/files/media_asset/ITGSE_en.pdf

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